


In Ebott's Shadow

by Veluren



Series: Ripples Into Waves [3]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, But leads to a happy place, Crossing Timelines, Gen, Gender-neutral Frisk/Chara, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Lots of headcanon, Lots of sweet stuff, More emotive than normal Frisk, Post-Pacifist Route, Reflection on other endings, Spoilers for all paths, let's try this again shall we?, sad stuff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-03 01:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5270690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Veluren/pseuds/Veluren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two years have passed since the monsters were freed, but in the now empty mountain, a new danger has stirred, sending a group composed of some of monster-kind's greatest to make sure their future is ensured.</p><p>This story is a sequel to both the Longest Road and Onlooker, the other stories in this series, and 100% requires you've read them for context as to the setup of this AU, and the Original Character who also takes part in the story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seeing doubles

**Author's Note:**

> So uh, I got some 'splainin to do.
> 
> I originally had this story out close to the start of the month, but after posting it up I realized I was sacrificing my integrity as a writer. I wasn't making the chapters nearly as big as I wanted, I was making the plot up as I went and it was quickly becoming a huge mess to deal with, I lost track of everyone's characterization and made them bland, I had barely any humor when that's just as much what makes Undertale as the serious stuff, and worst of all, I realized I was just writing because I felt obligated to nobody in particular to just write, not because I was enjoying doing it.
> 
> So I struck the story entirely, and after spending two weeks debating, decided I'm going to take a second crack at it with some actual thought and genuine effort put into it.
> 
> For those who caught it before I annihilated it, this story follows roughly the same plot, just a bit cleaner and with a bit more of a clear goal, there will be some noticeable parts, and some parts that are entire new/different. Hopefully this one winds up being more up to snuff with what I would consider to be a worthwhile story.
> 
> So uh, as for how this story actually goes, I'll say again and again, this story has an OC, if you don't like the concept of them, you'll probably dislike this story, if you're interested, it more or less requires you to have read Onlooker, because it's his story and gives context to his existence. The Longest Road is also preferable to read, as it explain why and how Asriel's alive, and how others know stuff they shouldn't otherwise.
> 
> Welp, let's go nuts, shall we?
> 
> Post-Update: Reflecting on this story after a month or so. I still think this is one of my better ones, very good pacing, nice plot for the most part, the only issue is minor grammatical errors (Looooot of comma splices) that I can fix easily once I find the time, and the resolution to the main plot in the last two chapters kind of took a backseat to other, more emotional stuff.

It had been two and a half years since the event now known as the Day of Breaking, when the Barrier was shattered by Frisk, and crown prince Asriel returned to life through a miracle only known to those close to the royal family. Monsters had settled all around the planet and lived in harmony with humans, though the greatest cluster of them still remained in the city of Newest Home, the first settlement monsters established after leaving the underground.  
  
_Tap Tap Tap._  
  
The silence of the night was broken by the repetitive knocking at the door, it was barely past midnight. “Who in the world would be at the door this late?” Asgore muttered, rubbing sleep from his eyes as he walked downstairs and opened the door.  
  
At the door was a shorter and thinner than average Boss Monster wearing a brown-and-gold-hemmed robe, the hood covering enough of his head to hide his blue eyes, but not hiding his horns which had long since torn through the fabric to poke through, a black goatee was the only noticable facial feature showing. It was Asgore's adopted brother, Ralochs.  
  
Ralochs was a strange addition to the royal family who came out of the blue one day nearly a thousand years ago, the epitome of what human determination let someone do if spiked with an excess of magical power. Granted the blessing of Asgore's father's SOUL when he passed from age, he used a flare of magic to transform himself from a human into a Boss Monster to fit in better with his adopted family and monster-kind as a whole.  
  
He hadn't escaped the years, of course, he'd seen more than his fair share of mental and physical trauma in his desire to help Asgore with the original plan to break the barrier, even losing his left arm to one of the more violent of the six children. Nonetheless, he was as loyal and kind as could be expected.  
  
He had been away, helping with ambassadorial discussions for the last year, so his appearance was sudden, and uncalled for.  
  
“Asgore, you need to see this.” Ralochs said then ran off in another direction. Asgore stared for a moment before nodding and following him outside, the two arrived in the town square when Ralochs pointed up, “Look at the mountain, you should be able to see it from here.”  
  
Asgore looked up and his eyes widened, “G-golly, why... why are there two Mt. Ebotts?”  
  
The next morning, the members of Frisk's inner circle had gathered together in Asgore and Toriel's house to discuss what happened.  
  
“SO WAIT, I'M CONFUSED.” Papyrus said, lacking his indoor voice as usual, “WHY ARE THERE TWO MOUNTAINS? DIDN'T WE ONLY LEAVE ONE?”  
  
“Yeah...I'm pretty freakin' confused about that too!” Undyne said only slightly less loud, though a lot more roughly than Papyrus.  
  
“W-well, I'm sure there has to be some explanation for it.” Alphys added on, struggling to raise her voice over her friend and girlfriend.  
  
“I'm not quite sure, perhaps this is just something that happens because of the weather?” Toriel said as she took a casual sip of tea.  
  
“Hrmm, Ralochs, what do you think?” Asgore added, directing it towards the monster looking out the window.  
  
“I don't have a clue.” The scholar responded, drumming on the counter with his claws, “It's not a natural phenomenon or we would have probably seen it by now, but I intend to go find out.”  
  
“hey, mind if i go along?” Sans said, finally speaking up.  
  
“WHAT?! ARE YOU ACTUALLY DOING SOMETHING, SANS?!” Papyrus cried out in shock, “WELL, IF YOU'RE GOING I THINK I WANT TO GO TOO!”  
  
“I have a guess as to why Sans wants to go.” Ralochs said, finally stepping away from the counter and walking over to where everyone else was sitting. He gave a loud sigh as he reached up to his chest, muttering stuff and earning him a glance from the others, “What?” He said defensively as he opened his eyes and looked at the others.  
  
“Y-you think it's because of Frisk?” Alphys added in, getting her a look from everyone and causing her to shrink back.  
  
That's right, Ralochs thought, part of how Frisk managed to save Asriel meant that they chose to explain to everyone at length the nature of SAVE and LOAD, they all knew that the underground's sense of time wasn't strictly linear.  
  
“Oh yeah, I had completely forgotten about that crap.” Undyne said as she reached up and rubbed at her head, “Alphys explained it to me until my head hurt and I still barely understand what she was talking about.”  
  
Toriel didn't look away from Alphys, giving her an almost scolding glance, “But we are all here, so Frisk could not have preformed a reset or loaded a SAVE, they told us they would not regardless, they have no reason to since they managed to return Asriel to us.”  
  
Alphys came very close to withering at Toriel's look, “I-I-I know, b-but s-still.” She was stuttering like a lawnmower as she tried to speak her mind.  
  
“Uhm, dear, I don't think she was meaning anything wrong by it, perhaps we should let her speak?” Asgore added in. In a way, Toriel obliged, mostly by shifting the look to Asgore and making him be the one too cowed to respond.  
  
Alphys sighed in relief as the weight was taken off of her, “W-well, I have a theory, what if Frisk's resets didn't actually destroy the timelines they abandoned, what if they just... continued, somehow?”  
  
“WHAT? WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? NOW I'M MORE CONFUSED!” Papyrus added in, rubbing at the side of his skull.  
  
Sans and Ralochs, however, just acted like Alphys had told them there was proof of intelligent life on other planets, “Other...” “timelines?”  
  
“Oh crap.” They both said at once.  
  
Minutes passed in silence as Ral and Sans sweated nervously.  
  
“You mean that you think the two Ebotts... you think the other timelines might be starting to bleed over?” Ralochs said, finally breaking the uneasy silence, “Because if so... that's not good, in fact that's literally the worst thing that could happen.”  
  
Alphys twiddled her fingers nervously, “I-I mean, that's my theory, I don't know how this time travel works, I just have to guess.” The poor girl sounded like she was about to fall over.  
  
Ralochs sighed, “Well, I guess that means we have to learn by seeing, huh? Alright then!” He said as he put his hand on the table, a smile on his face, “Well, since I know enough about you guys, who's up for an adventure?”  
  
“OH! OH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HEREBY VOLUNTEER FOR THIS ADVENTURE OF YOURS!” Papyrus said as he stood up and put his foot on the table to strike a pose.  
  
Ralochs sighed, “Of course you would.”  
  
“We eat off that, Papyrus.” Toriel said curtly. Papyrus immediately put his foot down on the ground.  
  
“Heh! You might be a Boss Monster but you aren't anywhere near as strong as Asgore is, you need someone who can protect you!” Undyne said as she stood up and took on the pose she always did when she was getting hyped up.  
  
“I... appreciate it?” Ralochs responded, unsure if he should take that as an insult or not.  
  
“well, all things considered i ain't got much choice huh? to be honest i'm thinking about what this could be, and I think it might be someone with a bone to pick me with. ” Sans added with a shrug as he stood up, ignoring the piercing glare from Undyne, Papyrus and Ralochs while Toriel tried to not snicker.  
  
“I-I'll stay here, I'm not much one for adventure.” Alphys said quietly.  
  
“I am going to stay behind too, the children need someone to watch them.” Toriel stated “And before you even consider it, no, Frisk and Asriel are not getting involved in this.” She shot Ralochs a glare that struck him like a knife.  
  
Ral reached up and pulled at his goatee, trying his best to sound brave through the withering glare, “I... uh, wasn't even going to suggest it, Lady Toriel, if this is temporal then Frisk is the last person we need back in the underground, for all we know they could end up resetting against their will if they came with us... where are they and Asriel right now, anyway?”  
  
Toriel just gave a nod, “School, they were worried about what they saw but I told them it was just their eyes playing tricks on them, it is too in Frisk's nature to not get involved if they are made aware that something is wrong.”  
  
“I'm going too.” Asgore said as he stood, his massive form overshadowing everyone else, “If this is a threat to my people, then I need to get involved.” He said, reaching up to scratch his beard, “Besides, it's been a while, I think it would be nice to visit the underground again to see how it's changed.” He said much more meekly.  
  
“Well, I guess that means it's settled, let's meet up tomorrow, and be sure to bring as many supplies as you can, weapons too, you can never be too sure.” Ralochs said as he straightened up to get ready to leave. “Oh, and Asgore... wear your actual armor, pink floral shirts don't exactly inspire confidence.” He added as he left.  
  
“...I thought I looked rather good in those shirts.” Asgore said quietly to himself.

* * *

  
  
That night, everyone took their time getting prepared for the journey.  
  
Papyrus spent all night readying the supplies, the smokestack rising out of the brothers' house was a clear indication of the frenzied spaghetti making of what he was going to treat as a camping trip, completely disregarding that there might be some kind of issue that requires him to fight, “OKAY, THIS SHOULD BE ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE TO EAT! I AM THE BEST SPAGHETIOR ON THE PLANET! NYEH HEH HEH!” He said as he stuffed a metric ton of spaghetti into his travel bag, only remembering at the last second to stuff in his jogboy clothing.  
  
The sack was big enough that even Asgore would have trouble carrying it, and every little bit of it was spaghetti.  
  
Undyne spent the night sharpening her spear and polishing her armor, “Yeah! It's been so freaking long since I've been able to wear my armor to something like this, I am PUMPED!” She yelled with a massive toothy grin. “Oh, that reminds me, are you sure you don't want to come, Alphys?” She said, turning her attention to her girlfriend who was sitting at the computer.  
  
Alphys just looked over with a nervous grin, “I mean, I'm uh... not much of a nature person, not to mention that... uhm.” She blinked, “Well, what if something bad happens and I screw up and just make it worse?” She said lowly, that just got a sigh and a smile out of Undyne.  
  
“C'mon Alphys! Show some DETERMINATION!” She said as she jumped across the room to tackle-hug the (now screaming) nerdy lizard.  
  
Ralochs spent his night sitting in his bed, he made sure to pack the night before, in all honesty, he'd have preferred to have gone that night, but everyone else wanting to come changed his plans. He reached up to his chest as a soft white glow began to radiate, the monster SOUL nested within his own began to give off a gentle warmth. “I'm sure.” He said, “If this is temporal, I'm not about to risk another reset, no matter what I have to do.”  
  
He paused for a second as the glow faded and grew again, “I'll need your help here, dad, every bone in my body is telling me this isn't going to be as simple as a trip up the mountain.” He responded to the conversation only he could hear. “We'll get through this.”  
  
Asgore spent the night with his wife and children, Frisk and Asriel were skeptical about the explanation their parents gave them, but eventually dropped it as dinner finished and went to bed.  
  
“I am sure they know, Frisk is too smart, and if Asriel does not understand, Frisk will tell him.” Toriel said as she put the dishes away to be cleaned with a sigh. She knew those two, they wouldn't be deterred, but what Ralochs said to her had made her determined to keep them away from this at all costs. As much as she still hadn't forgiven Ralochs to the same extent as Asgore, he usually made good arguments.  
  
Asgore just nodded, “That's what I'm counting on you for, dear, it's up to you to make sure those two don't get in trouble.” He gave a deep chuckle, “Really, between the two of us, I think you have the harder job.” He said as he walked upstairs, eventually coming back down in his armor. It looked a few sizes too small on him after two years of relative inactivity.  
  
Toriel just smiled at the sight, “I forgot how good you looked in your armor, the years have not  changed that at all.” She said as she walked up and started nuzzling his nose, he responded with the same gesture.  
  
From the corner Asriel looked at the sight, then back at Frisk, he just stuck his tongue out with a disgusted look on his face.  
  
Sans sat in the dark of his room, staring at a photo frame, “it's you, isn't it, w.d? you're the only other person on this planet who isn't frisk or asriel who can mess with time.” He stood up and rubbed the back of his skull, “but if you've been able to do this all along, why wait now, two years after the fact, to make any kind of noise?” He gave a deep sigh, “don't let this be something that makes me do something awful, pop.”

* * *

  
  
The next day came, the sun was rising over Mt. Ebott as the everyone gathered together, ready for whatever would come next.  
  
“Curious.” Ralochs said as they walked up the path, “I was wondering if the second mountain was physical but it looks like some kind of... phantom overlap? I really wish we'd have brought Alphys with us, she'd probably be able to identify this stuff better than any of the rest of us.” He sighed as he adjusted his pack, struggling to keep it steady with only one arm to hold it to his body.  
  
“hey, don't forget i'm here too.” Sans said as he walked beside the thinner monster.  
  
Ralochs looked back as the other three were causing a ruckus. Papyrus was loudly chanting some kind of song about the joys of hiking that he seemed to be ad-libbing, and Undyne was poking fun at how out of shape Asgore looked in his armor after two years of living peacefully.  
  
They were too far away to hear the conversation, even if they could hear over Papyrus. “Yes, and I find that odd, why didn't you take one of your shortcuts to the top of the mountain and wait for us?” The scholar questioned. Sans just gave a shrug and looked up at the see-through second mountain just above them.  
  
“i tried, i went to walk into a shortcut and smacked into a solid wall, whatever this is, it's definitely temporal.” The skeleton stated, eliciting a worried grunt from his companion.  
  
“The hell is going on around here?” Ralochs responded.  
  
“Hey! You two are getting too far ahead of us, hold on a sec!” Undyne shouted as she started fast-walking to reach the two in the lead. Asgore and Papyrus picked up the pace in response.  
  
“YES! YOU WERE THE ONE WHO SAID WE SHOULD COME! IT WOULD BE WRONG OF US TO LEAVE SUCH A FRAIL PERSON ALONE!” Papyrus said in a completely well-intentioned tone.  
  
“I may be missing an arm but I'm still a Boss Monster, Papyrus, I have more than enough magic to defend myself.” Ralochs responded in a curt, slightly annoyed manner.  
  
“Aw, C'mon Papyrus, you're hurting his feelings!” Undyne said with a laugh that was somewhere between a laugh and a cackle.  
  
“BUT ISN'T HELPING WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR?” He said with the same tone.  
  
Sans gave a wink with his right eye, “yeah, we're here to land a hand, see?” He said as he detached his left hand and held it out to Ralochs, who just stared him dead in the eye at the cross between a pun and a joke at his expense.  
  
“I personally think it's lovely that you three volunteered to come with us.” Asgore said as he kept just behind the group.  
  
Ralochs shook his head, “Fair enough, but can you knock off the arm jokes? I can't exactly applaud them.” He gave a wry smirk at that as Papyrus and Undyne gave a frustrated groan and Sans tried to not chuckle at that, Asgore pursed his lips, as if unsure if that was something it was okay to treat as funny.  
  
Midday turned to noon as the long jog continued, everyone was in high spirits in their own ways, a group of friends going on an adventure.  
  
Finally, they arrived at their destination, the only entry and exit to the underground. Ralochs set his backpack aside gazed forward, “Right, I need to go in first, alone.” He said as he looked into the blackness of the cavern.  
  
“What?! Why are you the first one to go in?” Undyne barked at him, Ralochs just turned around, raising his hood up just enough to meet her eye to eye.  
  
“Because if this paradox nonsense has re-established the barrier, I'm the only one capable of leaving.” He said, letting his hood fall.  
  
Asgore frowned, “He's right, I hadn't considered that possibility, if this is a shadow of another timeline, it might be one where the barrier never fell, so we need to know we won't get trapped if we continue.”  
  
“Bah.” Undyne grunted, crossing her arms, “Right! But did you have to try so hard to be cool with the way you said that?” She stated in annoyance at the scholar, who just shrugged in return before heading into the darkness.  
  
“Let's see what we can see.” Ralochs said as he lit up a small fire just above his palm. The area was the same as ever, an archway with a small grassy knoll in the center, from here it would lead into the throne room, but he'd seen enough, the barrier always had a certain kind of exertion it would express when he managed to slip out of it due to his dual-natured SOUL.  
  
“It's safe.” He said as he walked outside, “Looks like the barrier's still gone, but looking at how late it's getting, it might be prudent to camp here and head in tomorrow.” He added as he went about stripping some bark off a nearby tree, “Besides, I'm getting hungry, anyone besides Papyrus bring anything?”  
  
“WHAT?! MY SPAGHETTI IS THE ONLY THING WE NEED!” Papyrus chimed in, sounding slightly offended, “BESIDES, I MADE ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE TO HAVE, FOR SEVERAL NIGHTS IN A ROW IF WE NEED IT!” He said with a loud chuckle of “NYEH HEH HEH!”  
  
True, Papyrus had gotten a lot better with cooking in two years, after Toriel taste-tested his original spaghetti recipe, she gave him some nice tips to make it better, but it was still an acquired taste at the best of times. Asgore just gave a sheepish smile as he reached into his own, more modest pack, “Well, Tori made some snail pie for me, I can share it if you guys want.” Undyne and the bone bros shared an uneasy glance while Ralochs smiled and muttered a thank you.  
  
Taste buds were everything when it came to monsters.  
  
“Alright, that's enough wood, and now for a good old fashioned monster fire.” Ralochs said as he snapped his fingers, causing a fireball to appear just over the pile of sticks he'd set out, it slowly touched down... and flared into a massive fireball that made the scholar topple with a yelp, causing everyone to laugh. Ralochs got up and looked around, noticing that Asgore had added his own fire magic as a prank, “Rude!” Ralochs cried, trying to act indignant even though he himself thought it was funny.  
  
As Papyrus reached into his pack, he made a face, “HM, THAT'S STRANGE, THIS SPAGHETTI SEEMS... HAIRIER THAN NORMAL.” He said as he reached in further, eventually a loud bleat came from the bag, causing Asgore and Ral to freeze dead.  
  
“Geez! That hurt!” Asriel said as he crawled out of the bag, covered in spaghetti sauce, “Oh uh, golly, hi everyone!” He said with a nervous smile as he reached and scratched the back of his neck.  
  
“OH MY GOD! MY SPAGHETTI MADE ANOTHER ASGORE CLONE!” Papyrus chimed in, getting a look from Undyne that screamed 'really'?  
  
“Uh... ohhhhh my.” Ralochs added, his expression suddenly turning very afraid.  
  
“Asriel... why did you smuggle yourself here in Papyrus' spaghetti?” Asgore asked with a frown, eliciting a nervous chuckle from his son.  
  
“Well, I uh, heard that something weird was going on and I wanted to come!” He said with a smile, as if he had done nothing wrong, “Besides, everyone else is leaving on adventure, I wanted to come too!”  
  
“Welp! Not much we can do about it now, it's at least another half a day to get back to Newest Home.” Undyne added as she tore into a plate of noodles like it was the best thing she'd ever eaten.  
  
“hey uh, kid, where's frisk, then?” Sans added, trying to wipe away the beads of sweat on his forehead, Ralochs had a similar look. Both of them were most likely thinking the same thing, Frisk coming back with them would be almost the literal worst case scenario, temporal powers like that shouldn't meet under any circumstance.  
  
“Oh, I uh, convinced Frisk to stay home.” Asriel said as he twiddled his thumbs, “Frisk was really worried about the second mountain, but they said they could feel something weird going on with a save file they made a long time ago, they said they probably shouldn't go, so uhm, I volunteered!” He said with a smile. “They're probably going to have just as much of a bad time explaining it to mom, so I think we're about even.”  
  
Sans and Ralochs both gave an exhale hard enough to blow leaves off the trees, “Thank every god on this planet.” Ral said, Sans just nodded.  
  
“Well, errr, guys?” Asgore said, looking at the group, “What do we do?”  
  
“I THINK WE SHOULD LET HIM STAY! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO PROTECT HIM!” Papyrus said as he grabbed a massive gob of spaghetti from his bag, “THIS I SWEAR ON MY STATUS AS NUMBER ON SPAGHETTI CHEF IN NEWEST HOME!”  
  
“dang bro, that's a serious swear.” Sans respond, “yeah, i don't guess it'll hurt to have one more along, just gotta make sure he's protected at all times.”  
  
“NGAAAH! Like you even need to say that, Sans, I'll protect the kid with every bit of effort I'd protect Ral here with!” Undyne said as she proceeded to break the plate she was holding in half for no real reason.  
  
Ralochs gave a weary sigh, “Yeah, protected at all times and no going out of our sights, otherwise, I don't think it will hurt to have him along.”  
  
Asriel just smiled at everyone's support of him, “Aw! Thanks everyone, I'll be good, I promise!” He was all but jumping in excitement at the adventure awaiting him.  
  
The rest of the night was spent joking, telling stories and reflecting on the past.  
  
Stories of how Papyrus had managed to get his car, involving an incident at the DMV that involved an unsharpened pencil and a clown making balloon animals.  
  
Undyne's turn was spent ranting about a new anime she had picked up about a teenager with a metal arm who could transform matter by clapping his hands together, Ralochs was visibly jealous.  
  
Asgore and Ral talked about how far his and Toriel's relationship had repaired itself, how they had officially re-married last year and life was just like it used to be, Asriel occasionally chiming in about his own thoughts on life above the surface and his friends.  
  
Eventually, the fire died and everyone slept, tomorrow would be an exploration that would test each of them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, the changes between each chapter.
> 
> Chapter 1 mostly followed the same flow, with the addition of everyone getting ready, including showing how Asgore and Toriel have repaired their relationship.
> 
> Also, the campfire scene was new, added just to mostly show that everyone is pretty close to one another after two years.
> 
> The biggest change is Asriel showing up, he wasn't in the original story at all, his addition is something specific to me trying this. Frisk may or may not stay out of focus though, we'll see.
> 
> Also, expect me to frequently forget that Ralochs is only supposed to have one arm, I'm awful about that, but I'll zap the mistakes as I see them.


	2. First Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we get into the meat of things, I'm feeling a lot better about this second go around already, though I don't think I made nearly enough skull jokes (*distant sounds of Brook laughing*).

As the sun rose over the other side of the mountain, the monsters all woke up one by one at their own pace, except Sans, who seemed content to sleep until Papyrus screamed him awake, in turn making everyone else go from groggy to alert. A loud voice early in the morning makes for a nice wake-up call.  
  
As the group gathered themselves, they each filed back into the underground in a straight line, Undyne leading the front, followed by Papyrus, then Ralochs, then Sans, Asriel, and Asgore in the back. As their steps came beyond the point where the old barrier used to be, a sudden screeching noise not unlike static ran through their heads, forcing them all to their knees with various noises between screams and grunts of pain between everyone.  
  
“Ah! The hel-heck?!” Undyne said, catching herself so she didn't swear in front of Asriel as she stood up.  
  
“That... ow.” Ralochs said as he reached for his head, “I know that sensation, that's the sensation I get when I try to force myself to remember a deleted timeline.” He forced himself back to his feet, “But that wasn't just, that was way worse.” He said as he turned towards Sans, whose eyes were completely blank.  
  
“force yourself to remember deleted timelines? didn't you tell me you could only do guesswork like me?” He said, completely unamused, eliciting a nervous, guilty chuckle from the scholar.  
  
“WELL, MY BONES ARE RATHER RATTLED!” Papyrus added as he sprang up, looking around, “HEY LOOK, IT'S FRISK, AND MY FLOWER BUDDY!” He called out, pointing over to the grassy knoll in the center of the room. Ral and Sans immediately broke their gaze from each other and snapped to where Papyrus had called to attention.  
  
There wasn't much mistaking, it was Frisk, except at the same time it wasn't. They weren't quite there, more like a shadow, sepia-toned and see-through, they were standing there with a dull knife in their hands in front of a beat up looking flower.  
  
“That flower is... I vaguely remember it before we all went unconscious and learned Frisk's name.” Asgore said as he looked over towards the sight, the flower was glaring at Frisk even though it was half withered, it eventually took up a demented smile, it was saying something but the echo had no words to it, so the message was indecipherable.  
  
Asriel took a hard swallow, he remembered this, he saw it from both angles, when he was in Frisk's body as his SOUL, he watched the epic battle between the two, Frisk versus that deranged flower that called itself a god... and he also remembered seeing through the eyes of that flower, his sentient willpower, his body.  
  
Frisk just shook their heads as the flower's smile grew more and more demented, eventually, Frisk threw the knife aside and yelled something back, causing the flower to look unsure, then shocked, then eventually it burst into tears and fled by burrowing back into the ground.  
  
“What... what did we just see?” Ralochs said as the shadow of Frisk continued on to the outside. Asriel took a little swallow.  
  
“I... I sorta remember this, from when I was inside of Frisk's SOUL.” Asriel said, looking nervous, and unhappy, “That flower... it killed dad in front of our eyes.” He sputtered a bit at that as he tried to not cry at the memories. Immediately, Asgore knelt down beside his son and put a massive hand on his shoulder to let him know that he was still there, Asriel just managed a weak smile, “This was... this was an ending where Frisk wasn't able to bring me back, or break the barrier, all they could do was set things up for another timeline where that could happen.”  
  
“So, you're telling me there's at least one time where you and Frisk had to watch Asgore die... dang, that's rough.” Undyne said, not able to meet Asriel's gaze, “But uh, hey! That time, it didn't actually happen, er... right?” She reached up and scratched her head, “Man I hate this time travel stuff.”  
  
“I'M WITH UNDYNE, THIS IS CRAZY, YOU MEAN THAT FLOWEY WASN'T MY BEST FRIEND? BUT HE WAS ALWAYS SO NICE TO ME!” Papyrus added as he waved at the shadow of Frisk as they sat just outside where the barrier used to be.  
  
“That flower...” Asriel said lowly, “That flower was my body, _is_ , my body.” He added as he sat down, looking forlorn, “Alphys' determination experiments brought me back to life as Flowey, but I didn't have my SOUL, I couldn't love, I couldn't feel joy. It was so hard, being so empty for so long.” He started crying in earnest, Asgore immediately hugged him while the rest stared at the prince, shocked. “Frisk... Frisk recovered my SOUL, and then I was re-united with my body after the barrier broke, that's... that's how I'm here now.”  
  
“It's alright, my son, please, do not cry.” Asgore said as he tightened his grip, “We all make mistakes but, you weren't that flower, the tears you're crying right now are proof that you can love, that you can feel, even if it's regret, it's still proof.” He said weakly, trying his best to think of how he could comfort him.  
  
Ralochs and Sans were beyond words at what Asriel had just told them, their knowledge of time gave them the greatest sense of the repercussions of what happened in those other timelines, of course knowing such would make them react in such a way.  
  
“SO, ASRIEL.” Papyrus had a massive grin on his face, “WHAT YOU'RE TELLING ME IS THAT WE WERE FRIENDS BEFORE I EVEN KNEW YOU WERE ASRIEL!” Asriel just stared as Papyrus knelt down and ruffled the fur on his head, “BECAUSE YOU WERE ALWAYS SO NICE TO ME EVEN AS A FLOWER, I KNOW YOU'RE NOT EVIL OR MEAN, YOU'RE MY FRIEND AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.” Asriel just stared in shocked silence at Papyrus before his tears intensified, though the smile beaming on his face made it clear they weren't sad tears.  
  
“Your brother... he's an amazing person.” Ralochs said lowly as he brushed away a few errant tears.  
  
“ain't he, though?” Sans responded with a huge smile on his face as he watched Papyrus continue to cheer up Asriel, and the huge smile of relief come to Asgore's face, “that's what happens when you can befriend anyone.”  
  
“Well!” Undyne chimed in, “This was emotional and all, but there's still a mystery to solve, let's dry the waterworks and get going!” She said as he jumped up and down. Ralochs glanced in her direction with a wry smirk.  
  
“Is that sweat on your brow or are you being so active to hide the fact that you're crying?” The scholar said, causing her to stop and shoot him a murderous look. He just laughed it off, she was going to kick his ass later, but her reaction was worth it.  
  
Asgore nodded as he grabbed Asriel and put him on his shoulderpad and stood, “Right, let's keep going, we're barely one room into the castle, there's not much telling how far we'll have to go.” He started walking towards the front of the area.  
  
“Wait...” Ralochs said, suddenly getting crestfallen again.  
  
“What is it now?!” Undyne grunted, she looked impatient and crossed her arms, then started tapping a foot.  
  
Ralochs closed his eyes and looked up at the ceiling of the cavern, “What we just saw... the shadow of another timeline. I... okay, Sans, I might have lied about being able to observe time travel by examining expressions, like you do.” Sans was glaring at Ralochs, not only for lying, but for just outing in front of everyone else that he also knew the nature of time travel, and they were all staring at him with suspicion.  
  
Ralochs cringed a bit, Sans' pupil-less glare was one of the creepiest things in the world to to him, but he continued speaking, “It hurts to do, but I can remember the other timelines vividly... there are a few timelines where awful things happen, guys. And one in particular where... where...” He reached up to his chest, biting a divot into his lip and not even reacting to it.  
  
“Something possessed Frisk once, something wicked, inhuman. They weren't a human child anymore, they were a demon who walked around actively seeking to murder us. Their killing intent, their LOVE, it was so high that even Asgore fell to them in a single blow.”  
  
He looked up to gauge everyone's reactions, the gaped mouths and glassy stares were about what he expected, except for Asriel, who was looking at the ground, if he had all of Flowey's memories, he probably remembers how that timeline ended too, “That's not our Frisk, it never was, if you see the shadow of that demonic child, just remember that, this isn't that timeline.”  
  
Sans gave a loud exhale, “if he's right, we'll see some stuff we don't want to see if we keep going, if any one of you can't handle seeing yourselves die... especially at the hand of someone who looks like our best friend and family, you need to turn away and go home now.”  
  
Silence hung in the room for minutes before one by one, Undyne, then Papyrus, and Asgore, with Asriel still on his shoulders, all stepped up in acknowledgment of that fact, and refusal to back down.  
  
Ralochs looked both thankful and guilty that everyone would stay with him and Sans through this, even despite knowing what might await them. He gave a nod before holding his arm out in an 'after you' motion to let Undyne head forward first.  
  
They walked down the room between the throne room and barrier room, where Frisk and Asriel awoke after they had brought the prince back to life, then they advanced into the throne room where more shadows manifested.  
  
Asgore had made it a point to have all the flowers in the throne room uprooted when they left the underground for the final time, even though Asriel was back and they no longer served as a memorial for him, they still had too much sentimental value for Asgore to let them go neglected.  
  
A shadow of Toriel was in the throne room tending to the empty floor where the flowers would have been if they were still present, she was wearing Asgore's crown. Shadows of Undyne, Papyrus and Sans were sitting in the corner chatting away on a cell phone looking happy.  
  
“If I had to guess.” Ralochs said as he reached up, “Odd, I can't remember this timeline, Sans?” He said, differing to the skeleton.  
  
“i'm betting this is the fallout of that timeline where frisk just left without the barrier breaking, tori took over as queen and continued as normal.” He said, “give or take as many guesses you as want, unlike some people, i can't actually see timelines, i'm just really good at guessing.” He said as he looked right at Ralochs, getting an apologetic smile from the monster.  
  
“We all look somewhere between happy and super bummed.” Undyne said, “It would have sucked if that's what we continued living in.” Everyone else nodded.  
  
“Frisk... really liked you guys even back then, when I... when they spared Flowey, he showed up again and told Frisk how to get a happier ending, I think they listened because they didn't want to leave you like this, even though they knew it was probably a trap.” Asriel added in as the shadows faded away.  
  
“So... what do these visions mean for these timelines, did they really continue to exist alongside ours, what do they mean?” Asgore spoke up, looking confused.  
  
“well.” Sans said with a sigh, “bodies and minds can exist in multiple places, but a SOUL can only be in a single place at once, what we're seeing are just phantoms going about a preset routine without SOULs. All of us, in this place and time, we're the only real ones, the only ones with any kind of freedom to 'em.”  
  
Everyone just stared at Sans like he'd spoken another language, “WOWIE SANS! HOW DO YOU KNOW ALL OF THIS STUFF? I'D ALMOST THINK YOU'D HAVE BEEN BUSY, BUT I KNOW THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!” Papyrus eventually chimed in, getting a shrug from his brother.  
  
“well, do any of you uh remember... uh...” Sans gave a sigh, “w.d. gaster?” Suddenly the underground rang with another burst of static that brought everyone to their knees, everyone but Sans was wracked with incredible pain.  
  
“What the HECK?! What was that Sans?!” Undyne said as she stood up, looking about ready to punch Sans in the face.  
  
“yeah, thought so.” He said as he breathed in, despite that being optional. He took a seat in the dusty old throne and looked out the holes in the roof that were showing sunlight, “gaster, he was the royal scientist before alphys, the genius who created the CORE, and helped get us a lot of technology.”  
  
“That's impossible, if he'd really done something so important, I think we'd remember him.” Ralochs added, only to notice Sans had stood up and was walking with his eyes closed.  
  
“that's the funny part, gaster was messing around with time and using the CORE to power it but... something went wrong, the end result, gaster's in pieces all around the timeline, he exists everywhere and nowhere at once, and even though the CORE remained and none of his achievements went away, the world just kinda... re-wrote itself to keep ticking on without his existence, everyone who was close to him disappeared, everyone who wasn't, or was too important to other events like asgore just forgot about him.” He started walking out of the room, “that pain you guys are feeling is your minds trying to force yourself to remember somebody who can't be remembered, i wasn't sure of it at first, but looking at it now, i'm certain of it. the two mt. ebotts, seeing these other timelines, gaster's trying to pull himself back together and it's bringing timelines close enough to meet one another.”  
  
“So, first, is this dangerous?” Ralochs said as he rubbed his head, “And second, why are you the only person who remembers him?”  
  
Sans stopped and shrugged, “it's actually fine, if we leave it'll sort itself out, everything will go back to normal, but if gaster's going to come back to us, i want to find him and make sure he comes back together in this timeline, and not the other ones that stop existing when things reset. from everything i've learned about his situation, he's only got the one chance, we'll never be able to get him back if he goes away again. and uh, as for the second thing, he's our dad, but i didn't care for him much near the day his experiment went on, guess i got the perfect balance between knowing him well enough but not being involved enough that i didn't forget him or disappear.”  
  
“WAIT, WE HAVE A DAD?” Papyrus asked, as if completely shocked at this revelation.  
  
“Now that I think about it... brother, the old captain of the royal guard, the one who passed four-hundred years ago, wasn't he a skeleton, and didn't he have just one kid?” Ralochs added, recalling the past, Asgore's face lit up with recollection and he nodded.  
  
“I believe he did, do you think that might be this Gaster?” Asgore responded.  
  
“I kind of remember someone like that too, even though I was really young when he vanished.” Asriel added as he looked over his dad's shoulder.  
  
“NGAAAAAH! Why is this so confusing?! And why are _YOU_ all just rolling with it?” Undyne seemed a little more than frustrated at the situation.  
  
Sans shrugged, “so uh, now you know the story and the reason, you guys can go home now, unless you want to help me get our pop back, i'm guessing he's still around the CORE.”  
  
“You know us better than that.” Ralochs said, not adding anything else, what else was there to be said?  
  
“Agreed.” Asgore simply responded.  
  
“We're here for you, Sans.” Asriel chimed in.  
  
“I WANT TO MEET MY DADDY!” Papyrus yelled.  
  
“Nrrrrg, fine, but someone needs to write this stuff down, I'll have to have Alphys tell me what's going on when we get home.” Undyne said, finally giving up on questioning how absurd this situation had gotten.  
  
Sans smiled at that, “thanks, guys.” He said as he turned on a heel to continue walking. The next room of note would be the judge's hall. Upon crossing the threshold, Ralochs and Sans froze dead, and both of them plus Asriel all opened their eyes wide with terror.  
  
“Golly, is something the matter you three?” Asgore said, noticing the look on their faces as the shadows became more vivid.  
  
Two shadows stood a short distance from each other, it was Frisk and Sans.  
  
“Everyone.” Ral said as he reached up to touch at his head, “This is what I was warning you about, if you don't want to see the worst possible outcome, don't look until I tell you to.” He said as he watched Frisk produce a knife that noticeably gleaned against the light in the stained glass windows.  
  
The shadow of Sans brought an arm from their pockets and slammed Frisk into the wall, which promptly exploded with bones and wounded the child. This was immediately followed by four freakish skulls floating around Sans and unleashing a powerful blitz that shattered the child's heart.  
  
“Wh-what was THAT, Sans?!” Undyne said, looking towards the shadows as a faint glow flashed, and Frisk came back for round two, only for it to end the same.  
  
“WOW, I DIDN'T KNOW YOU EVEN KNEW HOW TO FIGHT, BROTHER.” Papyrus said, watching the beatings continue.  
  
“i don't like trying, i'm really that lazy, but...” He said as he watched the shadows re-engage for the third time, Frisk survived the first blitz, then struck, Sans just casually sidestepped, a move that made everyone's mouths drop at the blatant disregard for the 'rules', “if i'm seeing what i think i am, it reached the point where not even a reset would have fixed everything, i couldn't afford to not care.” Even he seemed shocked by his brutality towards who, in this world, was his best friend, even though he knew that in that world, they were a mass murderer.  
  
“How... how long does this continue?” Asgore said, it was clear he was upset by what he was seeing, but he couldn't turn away from the determined human and the awesome power displayed by the normally lazy skeleton.  
  
“Until they win.” Ralochs said as he watched, “This is what determination becomes in the hands of a demon, they don't give up until Sans falls, then they proceed into the next room, they slay you, Asgore... and then they cut down Flowey like a weed.” He said, reaching up to hug himself with clear distress on his face, “I was the last one standing, somehow I called them back from that, I called out to Frisk's kind heart and they heard me, they reset.”  
  
“And... that's how they managed to get my SOUL... should...should we be thankful it happened then?” Asriel said, unsure of his own words, “This is awful to watch, how many times does Frisk die to Sans here?”  
  
“More times than I want to count.” Ralochs said silently as he walked through the shadows, causing them to disperse early, “I was hoping that would work.” He said lowly as he continued, snapping the others out of it, they followed in silence, any jovial mood in the air from earlier had dropped dead.  
  
“The city is so dark now.” Asgore said as they all looked out over the balcony at New Home, “Not a light to be seen.”  
  
“Alphys told me the last thing she did before leaving was turn off the core so it didn't melt down and cause the mountain to explode, there isn't any more power down here.” Undyne added in as she looked up at the roof of the cave, sunbeams were poking in from various cave-ins that had occurred since the underground emptied, giving a good view of the outside.  
  
“Guess that means we'll have to take the access route to Hotland, I imagine the elevators aren't working either.” Ralochs said, “I can feel it getting late though, why don't we settle for the night in one of the old houses and continue tomorrow?”  
  
Everyone agreed with the scholar's suggestion and they proceeded to New Home's namesake, the old two bedroom hovel that Asgore called home two years ago.  
  
Spaghetti was shared between everyone as the last of the natural light faded from the holes in the sky, they lit up a fire to provide warmth and light as they ate and talked.  
  
The conversations were much more somber than last night's, all they had seen had forced quite a bit of reflection, even on events that weren't shown.  
  
Sans had to come clean to Papyrus about how he had actually been training a lot and that's why he was so monstrously strong, though Papyrus seemed more than pleased when told that he ripped off Papyrus' style because his bro was so cool, and not the other way around.  
  
Undyne had her arms crossed, it was clear she was wondering what happened to her in that timeline where Frisk was a murderer, even when they were a pacifist she was more than happy to see Frisk dead before they befriended her, she could only imagine the kind of hatred she went after them with.  
  
Asgore and Asriel both confronted their own mortality over the discussion of what happened in both of the other endings they learned of, Asgore said he wasn't going to let it stop him, but it was clear it weighed on him a bit more than he was saying, this time though, Asriel was the one to cheer him up.  
  
Ral just sat on his own, muttering a conversation to his adopted father's SOUL inside of his body.  
  
"They all know now." The voice said to him.  
  
“Yeah, I'm relieved, but at the same time it makes me depressed because... well, I would have preferred they'd live their lives never knowing.” He said to the voice only he could hear.  
  
"Perhaps it's for the better, you only get stronger through facing yourself, you know that well." He responded.  
  
Ral nodded with a sigh as he finished his plate.  
  
One by one, they all dozed off, tomorrow would take them to Hotland, hopefully that would be as far as they would need to go.  
  
Well, except for one of them.  
  
Ralochs took some time to walk outside of the mountain, he looked at the starry sky then summoned a fireball and tossed it into the air, it flew through the sky like a flare that could be seen for quite some distance. He followed it up by taking out a scrap of paper and a pen, he put the paper against the cliffside and simply wrote “safe to enter” on it, then placed it under a rock that would be easily seen to passerby.  
  
He couldn't see the future, but he knew his adopted family. There was nothing in the world that was going to stop his determined nephew/niece, and nothing that would stop his brother's overprotective wife from coming after said nephew/niece, the least he could do was signal they were okay to continue when the two of them inevitably turned up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Changes? This chapter was re-written from the ground up.
> 
> This is where I really altered the flow of the story, originally the paradox was actively malicious and the chapter ended with a setup to everyone dealing with their personal demons via viewing the No Mercy path by themselves.
> 
> Screw that.
> 
> Undertale is about friends and getting through hardships because of those friendships, that's why I changed the paradox to be harmless, but also to show parts of the timeline that the characters, living post-pacifist ending, wouldn't be aware of. Learning horrible things about how others things can happen, like the truth about Flowey, the existence of a No Mercy run and what it means for everyone, and all of them pulling each other out of any despair it might cause because they're friends and matter to one another, THAT'S what this story is about.
> 
> Also, the original story was about Gaster too, but he was more actively malicious too for reasons that I never reached before scrapping it, I made his role in events more obvious and had Sans explain so the confusion as to why the timelines are going screwy are minimal.


	3. New Home, Old Paths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Halp, I'm drowning in characters, why is their speech all so varied, ahhhh.
> 
> *insert witty comment about chapter names*

Dawn came and everyone woke up the same way that they did yesterday. After some stretching and some food to get things started, the group all departed from the old house and walked back outside to New Home.  
  
“Hummm, how in the world do we get down again?” Asgore asked as he looked at the sheer drop from the palace overlook to the rest of the city, “We already had elevators when we constructed New Home, so we just had them put in everywhere.” He glanced around, trying to find a stairway or something.  
  
Sans just casually pushed on a wall and it gave way, “over here, we had these access paths hidden away pretty good, it was only supposed to be something the royal family and royal guards knew about, guess two years makes you forget a lot, huh asgore?” He said with a chuckle as he stepped inside, “wow it's dark in here, you guys got some lights?”  
  
The three boss monsters all brought out fireballs, except Asriel's fizzled after a second, he just made a disappointed grunt in response, “Aw...”  
  
Ralochs chuckled, “Don't worry, you'll get there eventually, you've still got a lot more growing to do before your magic gets anywhere near as strong as your dad's.” He said as he headed inside, heading up the front and Asgore in the back so there was enough light on both ends that nobody would trip.  
  
The first stairway ended once it got into the city proper, the lengthy main road was covered in dust and debris from the lengthy disuse, though they weren't quite alone. Shadows manifested as they got close, echoes of the many, many types of monsters that once lived in New Home going about their daily business, smiles bright on their face.  
  
“Man, I forgot how lively it used to be down here, it's almost sad.” Undyne said as she watched the shadows of some children run through her and disperse.  
  
“I think it's a happy kind of silence.” Asgore responded, “It was our home for such a long time, some longer than others, but at the end of the day it was still a prison. I'm happy to know that these shades we're seeing, their real selves are living happily on the surface with everyone else.”  
  
“I AGREE WITH ASGORE, BUT I MISS THE SUN ALREADY!” Papyrus added in as he knelt down to offer some spaghetti to a mouse that was sneaking about, it took one sniff, gave a loud squeek and ran away, “EVERY MOUSE IS A CRITIC.” He sounded legitimately upset.  
  
“heh, they just don't know a good meal when they see one, i for one, would never pasta-up an opportunity like that.” Sans shrugged.  
  
“UGH!” Papyrus cried.  
  
“Riiiiiight.” Ralochs said as he ignored Sans' joke, “There's another access route to Hotland somewhere in the city, I just need to remember where it is.” He reached up to tap at his head, “I want to say it's closer to the base of the palace, so... er... oops?” He said, trying to hide the embarrassed blush just barely visible through his fur, “We should have stayed near the palace, we've walked a good bit away from it.”  
  
“Really? Good job there, Ral.” Undyne said with an unamused grunt as she turned back around and started heading back that way, everyone else just followed, though their attention was drawn away by a large burst of fire from the top of the palace.  
  
“Thought so.” Ralochs said lowly as he pulled his hood down, “Nothing in the world would stop them, and nothing in the world would stop her.” He said as they looked up, on the balcony were two unmistakable figures.  
  
“Oh no.” Asriel said in horror, “I'm so dead.”  
  
“Asriel Dreemurr! You are in a lot of trouble young man!” The scolding, motherly voice called out, causing Asriel to hide behind his father's cape. “And do not think I do not know you had at least some part in this, Ralochs!” She added.  
  
Ral, too, stepped behind Asgore's cape to hide himself, “If she asks, I'm not here.”  
  
The small figure next to Toriel just gave a small wave and didn't say anything, the neutral expression on their face was easily recognizable.

* * *

  
  
**Yesterday Night**  
  
“I can not believe that he pulled this.” Toriel said as she paced around the kitchen, “I can, however, believe that you helped.” She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes, causing the small human in the chair across the room to give a nervous smile.  
  
“I mean...” Frisk said, trying their hardest to think of a good lie.  
  
She gave a weary sigh, “I know, I should have known since the second you saw the two Ebotts that you would get involved somehow, but sending Asriel in your place? Honestly!” Frisk just shrugged.  
  
“I know it's safe though.” Frisk said, getting a raised eyebrow from their mother, “Ralochs told me he'd send a signal once they knew things weren't so bad I couldn't go.” Toriel's stare intensified, a few beads of sweat came over Frisk's brow, though they kept their mostly neutral expression, “That fireball we saw from the mountain earlier was it.”  
  
Toriel gave a slightly frustrated sigh, “I should have known your uncle had a part to play in this, the man is every bit as determined, and as stubborn, as you are.” She said in a tone both scolding and understanding that elicited a cringe from the human. She shook her head, “Well, I suppose we'll have to go make sure they stay safe then.”  
  
She sounded more than a little defeated, but Frisk's face immediately lit up into a smile, “You mean it?” They said hopefully, Toriel just nodded and sent them along to get some more supplies before departing.  
  
The motherly monster just shook her head with a small smile as Frisk ran off, “Telling that child to stay out of trouble is like telling the rain to not get you wet.” She mused to herself as she pulled a butterscotch pie out of the fridge and stored it in the dimensional box of her phone.  
  
The next morning the two followed in the footsteps of the others, scaling the mountain back to the underground which was their prison for so long. Frisk was wearing their concern on their face, it was the first time they had been back to the underground in two years, and there was still that ever so slight fear that whatever this was might take the power to SAVE and LOAD from them and reset, or worse.  
  
“Are you alright, my child? You seem worried.” Toriel said, catching the look on her child's face. Frisk just shook their head, “We can still go home you know, I am sure sure that the others will be fine.” Frisk just picked up the pace in response, Toriel gave a small smile as she continued to follow them.  
  
Without much in the way of conversation or distraction, the two managed to make it up Ebott much faster than the others did on their own way through.  
  
And...  
  
They also bore witness to the shadows of the other timelines, but without the context from the others. Toriel was heartbroken, and horrified, as she watched the visions of Frisk deny Flowey death, herself as queen, and Chara fight against Sans. It was clear she was distraught, but she set it aside for Frisk, who looked like they were going to go hollow at the sight. She walked out onto the balcony when she saw a distant fire.  
  
She gathered her magic and threw one of her own out, the fire stopped and started walking back towards her.

* * *

  
  
An hour was spent catching her and Frisk up on the situation, about the timelines, Gaster, what the shadows had shown them. Asriel chose to reveal to his mother Flowey's nature, and Ralochs explained Frisk's possession, much to Frisk's clear distress, as they thought Ralochs had forgotten that timeline.  
  
Of course, she didn't care, she and Asgore swept their children into a hug and told them it was alright over and over again, followed by kind words from all of their friends that brought their spirits back up.  
  
“IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL, I'M NOT CRYING, I'M NOT” Papyrus said, killing the mood.  
  
“then what are those in your eye-sockets?” Sans added.  
  
“TEARS! AGAIN!” Papyrus responded bluntly.  
  
Undyne smiled as she watched the sight, then looked over, “So hey, where's this access at?” She looked to Ralochs.  
  
Ralochs reached up to rub at his goatee, “It should be against this wall somewhere, all we need to do is find a hidden wall panel, and then solve the puzzle that requires sliding the blocks to form a picture of the-”  
  
“Found it! NGAAAAAAH!” There was a loud crash as Undyne ripped the door off the hinges, completely uncaring about the puzzle which gave a loud whir and exploded off the nearby wall panel, causing everyone who had their attention on the royal family to jump in shock.  
  
“-delta... rune...” Ralochs trailed off at the sight.  
  
“Eh! Who needs these old puzzles anyway?! It's not like there's any humans that need to be stopped anymore.” She said as she pitched the door behind her.  
  
“Well, I would prefer we preserve as much of the city as possible, it's still our history, dark as this time was.” Asgore said.  
  
“BUT UNDYNE, OUR PUZZLES ARE ART! YOU SHOULD SHOW THEM RESPECT!” Papyrus said as he looked at the fried panel.  
  
“heh, yeah, humans just draw something pretty, we make puzzles that send ya flyin if you fail 'em.” Sans said with a wink, “i remember setting up that puzzle myself, you mess it up a boxing glove flies out and beans you.”  
  
“Right... perhaps we're fortunate that Undyne broke it then.” Ralochs said as he stepped over the threshold, suddenly feeling the floor sink in a bit “Uhm...?”.  
  
“oh wait, that wasn't part of the slide puzzle, it was triggered by a pressure plate.” He reached up and gave a shrug as a boxing glove shot out of the wall and walloped Ralochs right in the chest, sending him flying back, “wow, those springs still got some spring to 'em even after two years, i'm shocked.” He said as he walked over to the sprawled out boss monster.  
  
“Sans.”  Ralochs stated, staring at the roof with a completely expressionless face.  
  
“yeah?” Sans said as he crouched down a bit.  
  
“There is no other monster in the underground with my proportions who would also know of the access routes to take that to the chest, did you put that in there knowing I'd eventually take this path?"  
  
“maybe.” He shrugged  
  
“Sans?” Ralochs replied, still deadpan.  
  
“yes?” His grin was as wide as it could get.  
  
“I hate you.” He said that, but his lip curled into a smirk, if nothing else he admired the skeleton's ability to wait for a joke to come to fruition.  
  
“love ya too, buddy.” Sans chuckled as he stood up and walked off.  
  
“Well, I for one think that was a rather pleasant... punchline.” Toriel added, getting a stare from everyone except Asriel and Sans, who burst into laughter.  
  
As everyone gathered themselves, they proceeded down the stairway that would lead to Hotland. Ralochs knew this stairway well, especially once the glow of the lava in the caldera beneath began to come up. He had come up this path so many times over the centuries on his way between Home and back, it had been made much safer, with fences blocking off the pathways and the stairs chiseled better to prevent unfortunate slips.  
  
“Another shadow.” Asriel called out as he looked ahead, his dad's shoulder making an excellent viewpoint for him to look down the rest of the stairway.  
  
A bit ahead there was a robed figure tentatively, slowly walking down the stairs, “Hm, I was wondering how long this would go back, that's me.” Ralochs said as he smiled fondly at the memories.  
  
“WHAT? THAT'S YOU? BUT HE...” Ralochs grimaced at Papyrus' yelling, here it comes, “HE'S SO SHORT.” Ralochs blinked, “AND HAS BOTH ARMS.” There it was.  
  
“This would have been when I was still human, and had two arms.” Ral said, he turned back to the others, the royal family was nodding understandingly, the bone bros and Undyne had raised their eyebrows.  
  
“Human, what? You mean you aren't a boss monster?” Undyne said, “Wait, that doesn't make sense though.” She walked up and grabbed his face, then gave it a pull, eliciting a bleat of pain that made the scholar blush, he hated people causing him to make those noises. Undyne let go, her lips pursed like she was trying to keep from bursting into laughter.  
  
“Let's get to the bottom of the stairs and I'll explain, you may not fall into the volcano anymore, but if we trip it's still a nasty roll.” He said as he watched his shadow walk down beside them, until it hits a lose rock and fell.  
  
He didn't know what he was thinking as he threw his arm out and tried to catch his phantom of another timeline, but it didn't react, it just dispersed as he disrupted it and grabbed the fencing instead, he stood there for a minute staring at where his other self fell, “But... wait, what?”  
  
“Ralochs, what was that?” Asgore said as everyone stared, “Did... did you just fall in?”  
  
There was a gentle glow from his heart as his father spoke. "Ral, what was that?"  
  
“Did I just... die? But I don't remember dying there.” He said, staring in shock, “What did I just see then?” He kept staring for a few moments, the worst sensation of dread sitting on him as he turned and silently walked to the bottom of the stairs, the others in tow.  
  
“Well, Ralochs?” Toriel questioned as the group arrived at a more open area at the bottom, Ralochs went and sat down on a nearby rock and gave a loud breath as he entered narrator mode.  
  
“Asgore, Toriel, Asriel and Frisk know this already, but I wasn't always a Boss Monster, once, a thousand years ago, I was a human.” Ralochs said as he looked over the path they had just come down, he pulled his hood off to show the blue eyes and black mane, recollection was clear in his eyes. “I was a scholar back then, always was. I came to investigate Mt. Ebott because people were starting to treat the war like a myth that hadn't happened. I walked inside, I got trapped, and I stumbled my way to Home.”  
  
Ralochs looked over, those who hadn't heard the story were staring at him wide-eyed, waiting for him to continue, “I befriended Asgore and his aged father, Gorel, as well as your grandfather, Colonna.” He said, looking to Sans and Papyrus who both went alert at that, “They became my family, people I would give my life to protect, but... I was haunted by the fact that I was still human, and most of my new friends and family were monsters who would live much longer than I would.”  
  
He took in a deep breath, “Six years after being trapped, Gorel “fell down”, it was his age finally getting to him after a millennium of living, his last will was to give me his SOUL.” Asgore closed his eyes and Toriel put a hand on his shoulder in sympathy. Asriel and Frisk both nodded, then looked to each other, recalling their own adventure.  
  
“Determination meeting Magic, those two forces combined together into something that made reality break, I woke up the next day in a new body, forever changed.” He said.  
  
“Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?” Undyne sounded skeptical, but she looked really excited, “But man, it also sounds AWESOME!” She said as she took up that stance she always did when she got excited.  
  
“I... know what he's talking about, actually.” Asriel piped up, causing their attention to go to him, “When Frisk fought Flowey in that ending where the barrier didn't fall, I remember seeing them in peril, I don't remember what I did, or how it happened, all I remember is that suddenly Frisk was so full of magical energy and determination that they were able to beat him in two strikes.”  
  
“So powerful with determination and magic that I was able to overpower six other determined SOULs, the one from dad's plan.” Frisk added, looking back to Asriel with a smile, and causing him to smile in return. Asgore just shrank into his shoulders at being reminded of that.  
  
“Well, I actually have a theory I thought up after I told you two my story the first time.” Ralochs said as he looked up towards the core with a smile, “Monster SOULs, they're made of love, compassion, and mercy. Monsters are also capable of incredible feats of magic that humans cannot accomplish.” He looked at his own arm and smiled, then brought it to his chest, a radiant light of two souls, a red human soul, and an inverted white monster soul started to glow.  
  
“A monster SOUL's love and magic with a human SOUL's determination, I think it causes monster magic to become something greater than even a being with seven SOULs in it, at least, that's my theory. So Frisk and Asriel could defeat a being with six SOULs in it, and I could rewrite the rules of the world to grant my one wish, to become a Monster so I could belong.”  
  
“THAT'S INCREDIBLE! I HAD A GRANDFATHER!” Papyrus said, still a bit behind, “WAIT! THAT'S INCREDIBLE! I HAD NO IDEA A HUMAN SOUL COULD DO THAT!” He said, finally mentally catching up to the conversation.  
  
“so uh, if that's the case, then why are you so weak compared to those two?” Sans added as he pointed to Toriel and Asgore, Ralochs sputtered.  
  
“W-well uh,that... I don't know, if I had to take a guess it's only when the situation is drastic. The effects of determination only really appear when you're at the verge of death, perhaps in my situation it's because Gorel's SOUL was still adjusting to my body, so the hands of death were trying to reach for him still, but my determination wouldn't let him go and that caused his magic to go nuts. And in Frisk's case, well, if what you told me of that battle is true, you were feeling your determination the entire time, Asriel just needed that realization that they only had one chance, then his powers went nuts.” He said taking a glance, the children just nodded twice in response.  
  
Sans shrugged, “makes about as much sense as me trying to pull my dad out of a temporal paradox.”  
  
“Well, that explains how you became a monster, I think.” Toriel said, “But you dodged the question, did we see you die on the bridge?” Ralochs froze up at that, then reached up to rub his head and grunted in pain as he tried to remember.  
  
“Well, you already know that answer because of Frisk.” Ralochs said, looking to the human, “I was pretty determined back then too, whenever I died, I could just LOAD and avoid whatever killed me. I haven't been able to do it since I became a monster though.” He said it with a smile to re-assure the others, but it was clearly forced. The truth of the matter wasn't that simple, he could remember all of his deaths, a death in waterfall to a monster who found him that wasn't Temmie, a death in Snowdin to hypothermia, a death in Home when he was found out to be a human before his change.  
  
He didn't remember dying by falling off those stairs, and it worried him more than words could describe.  
  
“heh, and here i thought the only secret you've been keeping was that you knew how time worked, didn't you tell me that you were a terrible liar?” Sans said as he looked at Ralochs, he just gave a smile.  
  
“I am, I never lied, I just chose not to tell anyone until it was prudent, and it never was until just now.” He responded with a smile too, causing Sans' to drop a little.  
  
“fair 'nough.” The skeleton responded.  
  
“Well, Sans is right, makes about as much sense as anything else we've seen, so, where do we go next?” Undyne piped up as she stood, looking up to the cold and empty shell of the Core.  
  
“yeah, we should get back on track, learning all this stuff about ral has been disarming and all, but we should keep going.” Sans said, ignoring the harmless spark that Ral flicked at him bouncing off his skull, “let's see, with no elevators working, the fastest way to the core proper would probably be alphys' lab, there's an access route in there too.”  
  
“WAIT, SANS, ARE THESE ACCESS ROUTES YOUR SHORTCUTS THAT YOU ALWAYS MENTION?” Papyrus added, this caused Frisk and Ral to look at him suspiciously as well.  
  
Sans just gave a shrug, “Nah, that's me walking through pockets in space-time to get to places faster, you get a lot of perspective when you know how things work.” He said as he started walking to Alphys' old lab.  
  
“OH, OKAY, THAT EXPLAINS THINGS.” Papyrus said, then stood there for a second, “WAIT, NO IT DOESN'T, IT JUST MAKES IT WORSE, COME BACK HERE YOU BONEHEAD!” Papyrus yelled as he ran after his brother, Undyne followed shortly behind, demanding more explanations.  
  
“Are you sure you're okay, Ral? You don't look well.” Asgore asked, walking over to his brother who was doing a worse and worse job of hiding his worry at the gap in his memory. The king put a hand on his brother's shoulder and gave him a smile, “Don't worry, if there's something bothering you, we're here.”  
  
Asriel and Frisk walked up to him and gave a bright and subdued smile, respectively, “We're here too if you want someone to talk to stuff about!” Asriel said.

Frisk nodded in response and whispered to him, "Especially if it's not something you want to tell them." They said, causing Ral to give a sympathetic smile.  
  
Toriel sighed, “I still need to scold you for letting Asriel and Frisk get involved in this mess, but it can wait, it is clear you are in distress, I am here if you need a shoulder, Ralochs.” She said with a gentle smile on her face.  
  
Ralochs just smiled, “Past is passed, I should just focus on what I do have, which is an amazing family and friends that are just as good.” He said as he stood up, “Well, let's head off to Alphys' lab.” He said as he continued walking.  
  
Eventually they all met up together in front of the Lab, at first they were unsure of how to enter it because the sliding doors weren't powered, which was promptly fixed by Undyne forcing them open... by bending them inwards instead of prying them apart, “NGAAAH! No more closing for you!” She cried.  
  
The clock up against the wall told them it was getting late, so they all agreed to take a rest. To the relief of her fellow Boss Monsters, Toriel revealed she had stored a Snail Pie in her phone's box, with some butterscotch pie for dessert, though Frisk decided to take their chances with the spaghetti.  
  
Briefly, they pondered how many days worth of spaghetti Papyrus had packed, his bag still looked so full that it would be impossible for someone that wasn't disgustingly strong to carry.  
  
Ralochs decided to regail the brothers and Undyne with the full story of his adventure, though he omitted the part about Asriel and Chara, their parents didn't know Chara killed themselves intentionally, and he seemed content to never let that come out, though with all else that had been seen on this journey, if Asgore and Toriel were going to learn of it, it would be here. He had eventually gone into full narrator mode to the point where Frisk and Asriel both noticed he could tell the story the same way right down to the inflection. They briefly wondered if he practiced it.  
  
Toriel and Asgore were sitting aside listening to Ral's story but also speaking to one another, occasionally Ral would break out of his story to stare at them when they started cuddling, it was good to see them so head over heels for each other again.  
  
They were getting closer to the Core every day this adventure dragged on, but for all its ups and downs, the revelations and discussions, they were all thankful they chose to go.

* * *

  
  
Meanwhile, back in Newest Home, there was a slight clack against the door, “H-hello? Toriel? Frisk?” Alphys said as she slipped into the royal family's home, “W-where is everyone?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm actually amazed that these chapters just keep getting longer, and it's not just the page length either because I've started compressing paragraphs more, they're just that large.
> 
> This chapter's pretty big on my own headcanon about just what determination is and how it would react. It's a lot like what I said in Onlooker, we see what monsters become when they absorb human SOULs, but we never see what happens when a human absorbs a monster's, I just made it a bit of "break reality". Also my headcanon: Undyne hates automatic doors.
> 
> So I'm done telling you what I've changed between chapters because the story's diverged so drastically it's basically become something entirely different, the changes amount to all of it.
> 
> A wild Toriel and Frisk appear! I debated for a while if I wanted them in the story before deciding to go through with it, even just one chapter in and I don't regret bringing them along.
> 
> I think I'm getting better at controlling the mood whiplash, it needs to be there, but not overbearing.
> 
> Does it count as character shilling an OC if said OC's way of taking attention is getting the crap knocked out of them? I'm not really sure about that one.
> 
> Poor Alphys, I probably won't bring her into the story mostly because I can't think of any good way, not to mention I feel like I'd do an awful job and keeping with her character, anything can change though.


	4. The Good Doctor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, I'm full of turkey and socialization, have an Undertale story.

It was still later in that same night, Ralochs had once again slipped away from the others, he had walked halfway up the stairwell they came down earlier, to watch and observe what he thought he saw, “It's so worrying, not just that I can watch myself die, but that I can't remember it happening.” He mused lowly as he watched the shadow slip and fall. He leaned into the fence to watch its decent, sure enough, his shadow fell all the way, vanishing into the magma below.  
  
“Clarity has come to each of them as we go, hopefully we'll learn what this means” The gruff voice rang out in Ralochs' head as he turned to head back down.  
  
“I can only hope so, father, I can only hope so.”  
  
The next dawn came and everyone woke up, getting in a good stretch and conversation before readying up to continue onwards.  
  
“Alrighty, Sans, where is this access route?” Asgore asked as he looked to the lazybones who was still looking half asleep.  
  
“eh, whutsa...zzz.” He responded, sounding out the Z's, Papyrus just came up behind him and gave a loud scream of wake up, causing him to jolt up and fast-walk to an otherwise empty wall and give it a push.  
  
“I feel like if Papyrus wasn't his brother, Sans would never wake up.” Asriel chimed in as he watched the skeleton walk off, Frisk just nodded in agreement as they went to follow him.  
  
The access route was shockingly direct, just a multi-part stairwell that led right up to the old MTT hotel. The hotel still seemed to be in oddly perfect condition, despite the years and the heat, though it didn't have quite as much luster with no power.  
  
“Hm, door's locked.” Undyne said as she pulled on the glass doors, “Welp! Too bad!” She backed up and charged forward with her arm held out, more than content to break the doors down. Sans walked up and simply pushed the door, causing Undyne to go charging straight into the old fountain with an audible splash.  
  
Toriel walked inside, ignoring Papyrus desperately trying to keep the furious Undyne from getting at his brother. She took a few looks around, “My, this place looked like it was very regal, once upon a time.” She rubbed finger against the wall and looked at the dust caked on it, “Though, not as much now.”  
  
“Yeah, Mettaton was such a narcissist he probably intentionally had his hotel designed to look more like a place of royalty than the actual palace does.” Ralochs said as he walked into the old fast food restaurant, “I'm going to see if there was anything else left behind that we might need for later.” He said as he disappeared behind the glass doors to scrounge.  
  
That was one of the big things monster food always had over human food, it never went bad, even two years later if anything was found that was edible at one point, it still would be edible, although it would also be likely to be covered in a firm layer of dust.  
  
“Do you remember this place, Sans?” Frisk asked, causing Sans to turn away from his brother and Undyne to look at them, he just gave a nod.  
  
“yeah, this was where you told me that asriel was bunking with you, i still can't believe that was actually real. when you told me that you had the prince's SOUL, i thought you were insane, but then i saw that glow more.” He took in a deep breathe, “worked out for the best that way though, didn't it?”  
  
Frisk just nodded with a small smile on their face, “Well, that and the first time around, that's when you told me you knew mom through the doors to the ruin.” They said, getting Toriel's attention, “And I also remember you saying that if it wasn't for her promise I'd been dead the second I left the ruins.”  
  
“You said what, Sans?” Toriel said, kneeling over and peering down at the skeleton, who started to sweat and shake a bit.  
  
“uh-heh, y-y'know how it is, tori, i'm always telling jokes, some of them are just more miss than hit.” He was trying his best to not wither under her glare, she eventually gave a breath out of her nose and walked over to where Asgore was. Sans looked over at Frisk, who was just smiling, they had played him like a fiddle on that one, he had to admit.  
  
Asgore walked close to the hallway that would lead to the CORE, “Hm, does anyone else hear something?” He said, Undyne and Papyrus finally stopped and walked close to the hall, they all listened closely for what sounded like a distant, haunting kind of low mechanical drone, nobody could place it, but it sent shivers up their spines, it just felt wrong.  
  
Eventually, Ralochs returned with a few legendary heros and face steaks for later, “See, narcissist.” He called, pointing to the oddly well-crafted steaks. After spending a second haunted by the noise, Sans took the lead and walked into the CORE, the others following behind.  
  
Despite being over a volcanic font, the core was freezing and almost pitch black, there was no more superheated plasma providing light, warmth or power, it was just a dead, metal sphere floating in the middle of a caldera.  
  
“Is it just me, or does something about this place's very existence feel wrong?” Asriel said as he huddled up close to his mother, trying to be brave and not jump at the occasional shadow or loud noise of metal shifting.  
  
“yeah, like a big metal coffin.” Sans said, not helping Asriel's nerves in the slightest, but he didn't seem too concerned, he just kept walking, “just remember.” Sans called out as he vanished into the echoing darkness, “it can spook you, but the paradox is harmless.”  
  
They proceeded towards the next room when a shadow appeared, it was Alphys.  
  
“Alphys?” Undyne said as she looked towards the phantom of her girlfriend, who was staring over the abyss that was once upon a time filled with plasma energy, “Hey, what is she doing there?” Undyne walked forward, then looked to the side, there was a broken robotic shell across the way, it looked like someone had delivered a huge beating to it, “And that's Mettaton.”  
  
Frisk looked forward, then the shock came to their face, “Oh no, Undyne! Don't-” Before they could finish their sentence, the shadow of Alphys took a step forward and fell. Undyne wasn't thinking, she rushed for the shadow and tried to save it, only for it to disperse and her to fall into the abyss below.  
  
Before anyone else could move, two white blurs rushed past the group, Undyne opened her eye and looked up at her savior, “I'VE GOT YOU UNDYNE, DON'T WORRY!” Papyrus said as he had Undyne held by one arm, and was holding onto Asgore's hand as he stood on solid ground. Asgore gave a grunt as he pulled them both back up.  
  
“Thanks.” Undyne said, looking over where the shadow fell, “Alphys... did she just...?” She sat down on the ledge and looked down towards the darkness.  
  
“I'm sorry.” Frisk said, reaching up to their chest, Undyne just looked at them, “The very, very first time I came to the underground, I didn't go through it saving everyone. A few people... they didn't make it, Mettaton was one of them, I was about to die and I couldn't figure out how to make him stop peacefully so I... and then Alphys, she was so...” They looked down, they weren't crying but they looked ashamed and horrified, and couldn't continue speaking.  
  
That was the worst part to Frisk, is that they couldn't even blame this one on Chara, or the other presence that controlled them, the deaths in that timeline were all their doing, and nobody else's.  
  
Undyne just looked down, calmer than anyone had ever seen her, which wasn't a good sight, “It's not real.” Undyne said, was she crying? “She's waiting for me back home, right? She's still with us, right? That isn't how it happened, right?!” She said, standing up and all but yelling in a mix of sorrow, confusion and anger. Frisk just nodded twice.  
  
“UNDYNE.” Papyrus said, putting a hand on her shoulder, “IT'S ALRIGHT, REMEMBER WHAT SANS SAID? IT'S NOT ACTUALLY HER, SO TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN AND JUST THINK OF THE LOOK ON HER FACE ONCE WE GET BACK.” He gave a bright smile, Undyne stared at him for a second and then put on a bright, toothy grin of her own.  
  
“Yeah! When we get back home I'm gonna tackle that little nerd and propo-” She paused, staring blankly as the others looked at her, “Err, I mean uh, I got something I want to ask her!” She said, reaching back to rub her neck with another huge, toothy grin on her face. Her mood quickly changed as it went to an introspective frown,  “To be honest, I kind of knew she always had those kinds of thoughts, the first time I met her was in Waterfall, the garbage dump, I remember she was staring over that abyss looking...” She sighed, “Thoughtful, I knew what she was thinking, so I pulled her out of it, and I don't regret it, never have and never will.”  
  
Asgore nodded sympathetically, “After what happened in the True Labs, I understand perfectly well why she might hold onto those thoughts, that is just one more reason to be thankful for Frisk, bringing her out of that.” He said, looking at his adopted child, who just looked at the floor apologetically  
  
Asriel just sighed, “That was close, I thought we were about to lose Undyne, did you see how fast dad and Papyrus moved when they saw her in trouble? I didn't think either of them could run so quickly.” He said, looking up to Ral.  
  
The scholar just gave a small smile, “I think that's just one more thing to attribute to my theory, love makes for a powerful catalyst when it comes to magic, the potential loss of Undyne made their magic flare up enough to move like a bullet.”  
  
Toriel nodded as she looked at the others, “It is good to have friends like this, who care about each other so much.”  
  
“HEY, WAIT A SECOND, ANYONE SEEN SANS?” Papyrus said, suddenly calling attention to the lack of a member of their little adventuring group, Sans was nowhere to be seen, at least not for the moment. Given a minute and a lot of yelling, Sans eventually re-appeared, but he didn't look happy, despite the smile still plastered on his face. He didn't say a word, just gestured.  
  
They all walked a bit, following the oddly silent skeleton, eventually they were lead to a door in the middle of the hallway. The door didn't look like it belonged, the rest of the CORE was metal, machine, even in the darkness it was vivid and colorful, this door was wooden, and an almost washed-out grey. Sans slowly pushed the door open, then gave a breath, “well, here goes nothing.”  
  
The inside of the room was just a small, gray void with a single figure resting in the center of it. The figure looked like it was in a tuxedo, but it had no arms, no legs, its face was unmistakably skeletal, though multiple cracks rested on a bittersweet expression.  
  
“hey, dad.” Sans said as he looked at the figure in the middle of the room, everyone else was too shocked by what they were seeing to speak, this was Gaster? It was clear by the way this room looked, the way that his expression rested, this was a poor, broken creature.  
  
The face lifted itself up, its mouth began to move and filled everyone's heads with an awful white noise that forced them all to their knees, “wow, that's way worse than it used to be, w.d.” Sans said, seemingly unaffected, “he's thanking me for coming, and for bringing all of you guys too.” Sans said, “doesn't sound sinister at all, why are you thankful i brought them?”  
  
The figure continued to speaking, making everyone else try to cover their ears however they could, “gotcha.” Sans said, turning around, “he apologizes for the headaches, says he can't speak normally while he's still in pieces.” He turned back around as the voice continued, “dad says that it's good we came, because we can help him get himself back together, and make sure it's in this timeline, 'xactly what i was hoping for.” Sans looked hopeful, “alright, start talking, tell us what needs to happen.”  
  
The voice continued speaking, eventually the nonsensical screeching became less intense, or everyone adjusted to it, they were able to uncover their ears and listen in full, though they couldn't understand the phantasm, and Sans seemed content to just listen and nod.  
  
Minutes passed by before Sans motioned for everyone to depart, the door vanishing behind them.  
  
“That was... that was something.” Toriel said, the mental exhaustion clear in her voice as she used some minor healing magic to help Asriel and Frisk deal with their headaches.  
  
“Is that what it means to be shattered through time? What an awful fate to suffer, and he's been like this for how long?” Asgore questioned, Sans just gave a shrug.  
  
“Everything about that room felt so wrong, I completely lost my sense of time and awareness of my self, it was like I wasn't in my own body.” Ralochs said as he rubbed at his head, looking at where the door used to be, “And the door is gone.”  
  
“WOW, I CAN'T BELIEVE I FINALLY MET MY DAD, HE WAS SO SAD, WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING TO HELP HIM!” Papyrus said as he waved an arm over the empty space the door used to be at.  
  
“You two spoke for an awful long time, Sans, what did he tell you?” Undyne said as she stood up, looking at Papyrus trying to find the door again.  
  
Sans took in another deep sigh, “alright, so, from what he told me, he's pulled himself mostly together, but there are still four parts jammed in time that he can't get out by himself, he's wanting us to help him by going there and freeing him.” He walked over and sat against a nearby wall, “one in hotland proper, one in waterfall, one in snowdin, and one in the ruins.” He said, then looked toward the group, everyone easily picked up on the implications, “looks like this little outing just got stretched out a bit, eh?”  
  
“Well, it's not like I had any other plans.” Undyne said with a shrug as she looked at the others, who nodded.  
  
“Well, the children will have to do a lot of catch-up homework, but I suppose there is no issue in continuing for Sans' sake, and for the sake of that poor man trapped in that room.” Toriel said as she looked back towards the door.  
  
Asriel and Frisk were both looking very crestfallen though, something Ralochs took note of, but chose to not call attention to.  
  
“It's been quite some time since I've seen the ruins, I think it will be delightful to go back after all these years.” Asgore said, taking note that the children's expressions got even worse, “Are you okay, Frisk, Asriel?” He said, looking at the two of them.  
  
Suddenly the realization hit Ralochs. If they went back to the ruins, they would probably see another echo, they might learn that Chara's poisoning wasn't an accident if they went back there, and neither one of them was looking forward to that possibility. Ralochs took a small swallow, then looked at the children, they looked to him as he gave a shake of his head with a bittersweet smile on his face.  
  
Frisk and Asriel looked to one another, neither of them looked to be very happy, but they took in a deep breath, “I think, yeah, if we go to the ruins, I have something you guys should see.” Asriel said, not daring to meet his parents' eyes, even though they could see that sad look on his face.  
  
“Dear.” Toriel said, looking to Asgore. Whether it was mother's intuition or just good perception in unclear, but Toriel understood well what kind of shadow would be in the ruins if they went back down there just judging by Asriel's face alone, even though she wouldn't know the truth of the context. After a few seconds of reflection, Asgore realized too, and dipped his head.  
  
Papyrus just looked at the Boss Monsters and human, “HEY... WHY DO YOU ALL LOOK SO SAD? CHEER UP, IT'S JUST MORE ADVENTURE.” He said, trying to pick their spirits up, Sans just tapped at his brother's leg, then shook his head when he looked down, the distress on Papyrus' face was clear when he seemingly realized that maybe this would be something they'd have to face on their own.  
  
The walk back to the MTT hotel was filled with a reflective silence.  
  
“Just remember.” Ralochs said, breaking the silence, “What we see from the past is gone and unchangeable, and what we see of other timelines isn't a reality that happened, we acknowledged when we came down here we'd see uncomfortable stuff, and that's held true, but what kind of friends are we if we give up here?” He said, looking to Sans with a small smile on his face.  
  
“heh, thanks, again.” Sans said.  
  
“Yeah! He's right, we'd go through hell to-” Undyne cut herself off as she felt a piercing sensation hit the back of her skull, she slowly turned around to see Toriel shooting daggers at her swearing in front of the kids. She slowly turned her head back around to face the front again, “We'd go through heck to make sure our friends are okay.” She corrected as she picked up the pace again to give herself some distance from Toriel.  
  
“SO SANS, YOU SAID AN EXPERIMENT WENT WRONG WITH DAD, BUT YOU DIDN'T SAY WHAT THAT WAS... WHAT WAS IT?” Papyrus questioned, all eyes went to Sans at that good point he had raised. Sans just shrugged in return as he picked up the pace, everyone else picked it up too, they weren't going to let him weasel out of this one.  
  
They eventually got back to the hotel and went to the old fancy restaurant across from the inn rooms, the place where Sans and Frisk had a heart-to-heart a long time ago. Sans took a seat on one of the rickety old tables, “well, if you gotta know, our dad had a working time machine.” Sans said, after a few seconds everyone else in the room gave a loud scream of “What?!”  
  
Sans uncupped where his ears would be, if he had any ears to begin with, and then continued, “yeah, still have no idea how he made it or powered it, it wasn't the kind of machine you could actually travel in though, you could just look ahead and see what came next. so, anyway, he used that machine to discover all sorts of stuff we shouldn't have had, course the r and d time took a lot of time for just one guy. stuff like phones and the internet, he had it worked out years before the humans did up on the surface because he could look into the future and see how people made it work, but it took him forever and an age to actually get it working, since he was the only one who understood what he saw.”  
  
Ralochs crossed his legs at that as he put a hand to his chin, “That... that explains a lot, way back when, I would sneak out of the barrier every few years and grab bits of culture to bring back for us to emulate, so we'd stay equal to humans despite our imprisonment, but half the time that I would bring back something technological as opposed to something like books or news, Gaster would have been on the way to inventing it, I always just passed it off as his genius.”  
  
Sans chuckled at that “don't get me wrong, he's freaking smart, but yeah, a lot of it was cheating. and, as for the core itself, the one we're standing in? god, i don't even know how far into the future he looked to get this thing working, humans are at least another century from something this clean and self-sustaining.” Sans reached into his jacket and produced a bottle of ketchup, he reached up to chug it, ignoring the slight cringe of disgust on several of the group's faces.  
  
“So, what went wrong?” Frisk asked, looking at the skeleton.  
  
“like i said, you couldn't actually travel in it, he wanted to change that little fact, so he started messing around with it. i remember getting into a huge fight with him over it, observing the timeline, that's fine and good, but messing with it? i couldn't stand for it, but he wouldn't change his mind.” He shook his head, bringing his arms out of his pocket to give a defeated shrug.  
  
He took a second before continuing, “few days later and he turned the thing on, the blast of energy echoed through the underground, knocked me out stone cold. when i came to, i couldn't find him anywhere and when i asked where he was, the only answer i got was “who?” it... man, it was a nightmare, having to live that. not even my brother remembered him.” Sans said, his smile grew weary as he closed his eyes.  
  
“SANS...” Papyrus said, walking over and giving his bro a massive bear hug, Sans just chuckled in response.  
  
“heh, thanks bro, needed that.” He said, his smile becoming more genuine, “and uh, ral? you haven't been the only one lying by omission, i can kind of see time too.” He said, causing the scholar, Asriel and Frisk to jerk their heads up towards him.  
  
“that machine? still works how it did before. every time i felt that sense of deja-vu at frisk turning up in the underground, i would go over to it and turn it on, watch your journey, see what you'd do,  and what i'd do in response and make sure things fell into place. it was far from perfect though, it's still busted from the accident and cuts out, leaves me stuck with some pretty awful context sometimes, that's why i try to not act until near the end, also how i got asgore to make me judge, in his eyes, i just kinda knew things.”  
  
He glanced to Papyrus, “also how i knew when i could afford to be lazy, and how i found my shortcuts.” he said with a wink, causing his brother to stop hugging him and give him a disapproving look instead. He then looked to Ralochs, “course, it only works for this timeline, i can't look over the other ones like you and frisk.”  
  
Sans looked at Toriel and Frisk, “this last time? i saw frisk and tori's fight in the ruins back then, the time machine cut out and next i knew, i see the kid leave the ruins with their SOUL glowing white, my immediate assumption was that they'd killed her and took her soul for power.” They both cringed at the thought of that happening.  
  
“That's... wow, I wouldn't think you had so many secrets, here I always thought you were just some lazy bum holding down jobs in... I didn't even know how you held those jobs! Now it kinda makes sense.” Undyne said, then blinked, “Ah crap, someone been writing this down? Alphys is gonna want to hear this.”  
  
Ralochs reached up and tapped at his head, “Believe me, Undyne, it's all up here now, once I can actually get a real book I'll novelize this entire adventure, that's the one thing I'm a hundred percent perfect at.”  
  
“MY SKULL FEELS LIKE IT'S GOING TO SPLIT, THIS IS SO WEIRD.” Papyrus cried out, “AND DESPITE BEING A GENIUS MY BROTHER'S STILL THE LAZIEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, NOOOHOHOHOOOOO!” He despaired and fell to his knees, earning a sympathetic pat on the back from Asriel.  
  
“I always wondered about that, from the day you showed up asking to be judge, you could immediately tell me the amount of EXP and LOVE someone had even if they'd never met you, and you could always know who to trust and who to be cautious of, golly, I never thought it would be something like this though.” Asgore said as he looked at the others, who were in various states of thinking on all the information they had received.  
  
“hey.” Sans said, “what time is it?” He blinked suddenly, everyone looked around for a clock before Toriel pulled out her phone.  
  
“Let's see, it is eight forty-two PM... wait, how has it already grown so late?” She said, confused, it was barely past noon when they went into the CORE. She immediately looked to Sans for an answer.  
  
“yeah, figured, dad said that he was trying his hardest to keep things flowing normally for us while we were in that room, but the most he could manage was dumping us out a few hours later in the same day, all things considered we're lucky we didn't get thrown out yesterday, would have been weird to run into ourselves.” He said with a wink, not taking the potential paradox seriously at all.  
  
“Wonderful.” Ralochs said, deadpan.  
  
“WELL, I'M SUDDENLY VERY HUNGRY!” Papyrus said, he seemed to be trying his hardest to make these end-of-night camp-outs a regular thing.  
  
“Fair enough, I think we have had enough shock for one day, this is a hotel, so there should be furnished rooms nearby, yes?” Toriel said, looking around, Ralochs just nodded.  
  
“Of course Mettaton, ever the thoughtful soul, made it so that keys only work on the doors once, there's no way-”He stopped himself and glanced over to Undyne, she immediately picked up on it and gave a large, toothy smile.  
  
“NGAAAAH!” She yelled as she ripped each individual door off the hinges, three bedrooms to sleep in actual beds for once, and food that wasn't spaghetti or snails. Everyone was thankful.  
  
“Hey, Asriel.” Ralochs said as he addressed the prince, beckoning him over, far enough away the others couldn't hear their conversation.  
  
“What is it, Uncle Ral?” Asriel said, only to notice the look on the older monster's face.  
  
“Are you sure you're ready to let them know, about Chara?” He said, Asriel's demeanor immediately took a dive at that.  
  
“You knew.” He said sadly. Ralochs just nodded and put a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Chara left the page for buttercups marked on that botany book I lent you two, it took me until a while after the fact, but I realized the symptoms they died from were ranunculous poisoning, and after they specifically learned they were toxic. Asriel, they did it on purpose, didn't they?”  
  
Asriel tried his hardest to not cry, he didn't need to get the others' attention, he just nodded twice in silence.  
  
Ral could feel his heart breaking, but he just gave him a patient, sympathetic smile.“If you go to the ruins, they'll probably learn of it, it may be best to tell them before they see it themselves.” He gave a sigh, trying to ignore his own stray tears, “But, you're a big boy now, if, and when, you want to tell them, that's on you, alright?” He patted the small child's shoulder twice, then stood up to rejoin the others. After getting his emotions in check, Asriel followed.  
  
The discussions that took place were par the course, discussions over where there journey would take them, up to the other levels of Hotland, through the cold and humid caves of Waterfall, the frigid forest of Snowdin, and back to where their society began anew, Home.  
  
They all enjoyed their hero sandwiches and steaks shaped like Mettaton, and dozed off happily in the massive, comfortable beds inside of the rooms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first off, can I just gush for a second?
> 
> I've been a writer/roleplayer for nearly a decade now, and this story, much less the entirety of Ripples Into Waves, has eclipsed the amount of stuff I've wrote proper for any of those other universes. This chapter in particular is the longest single thing I've wrote, ever, which says a lot for how much I'm enjoying it.
> 
> So, bit of trivia, I originally had this start moving a bit more towards the original plot, with everyone splitting up to handle the paradoxes in groups of two-three. I finished it around page six, took a look at it, and immediately remembered why that made the first version of the story so mediocre, so I deleted a full three pages and rewrote the story to keep everyone together, and that not only made it keep flowing well, it also made me write much, much more.
> 
> Also, did I say last chapter it was my headcanon that Undyne hated automatic doors? Make that every door. Shonen heroes tend to go through walls anyway.


	5. Variable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feels ahoy
> 
> [Preferably, you'll be listening to the Undertale main theme as you read this chapter.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBhFHJMVfiI)
> 
> Emotional manipulation? I have no idea what you're talking about.

The next day came, Asriel was the first to wake up, he'd walked outside and sat on the railing just outside the hotel. His gaze was sad and downcast, it's clear he'd been thinking of what would happen when they all went to the ruins.  
  
“You're scared, aren't you?” Frisk said as they walked up beside their brother and took a seat beside him, they looked at him with a frown on their face, “It might be time though, they've held onto the pain of Chara's death just as long as they did yours, longer now. They deserve to know-”  
  
Asriel bit his lip, interrupting, “Know what, Frisk?! That they were actually a horrible person? That they never actually loved us?! That it was all just a scheme that cost me my life?!” He said through a waterfall of angry, bitter tears. He shook his head, “Sorry, I... that wasn't called for, I shouldn't be taking this out on you.”  
  
“Asriel.” Frisk said, looking up, “At the end of my adventure, I saw Chara.” Asriel snapped up to look at them with that, “They... they were like Flowey, they didn't have a SOUL so they were emotionless, but they saved me from that presence that took control of me... twice.” They said, still not divulging the most sour truth, “They were the one that let me break free of that Presence, Ral only helped get my mind back but Chara let me regain my body... and then, the Presence came back after I saved you, it wanted to reset and control me again, but Chara killed it.”  
  
Asriel just looked at Frisk, tears still falling as Frisk continued their story, “Before they killed it though, they attacked me, they wanted me to prove them wrong about kill or be killed, and while I struggled against them, they said one thing to me.” Frisk said, their lip started quivering slightly as they shakily said the words, “What I felt for Asriel, for Toriel and Asgore? That was real, I really did care about them.” Frisk narrated the words, openly crying now, “They could have chosen it differently, but the SOULs plan was done out of genuine love, a desire to see you guys freed.”  
  
Asriel didn't react at first, he just sat there crying until Frisk hugged him, and he hugged them back, “I'm not going to make you tell them, and I'm not going to tell them myself, just... whatever you do, know that I'm here for you, Asriel, no matter what happens, or what the others say.”  
  
Asriel just cried into their shoulder for a while, thankful that his sibling was such an amazing person, “I love you, Frisk.”  
  
“I love you too, Asriel.” Frisk responded, trying to stop their own tears.  
  
Frisk and Asriel eventually walked back inside after their tears had dried up to meet the others, most of them were still asleep, they were probably thankful for the beds after a few days of having to rough it. After another hour, they each got up one by one, until Papyrus woke up at least.  
  
“DOOOOOOG!” Papyrus screamed, waking up everyone who wasn't already up as Papyrus chased a white dog-like monster down the hallway, “AH-HAH, I FINALLY GOT YOU CORNERED, NOW GIVE ME BACK MY SPECIAL ATTACK!” He yelled as he took a diving tackle at the creature. The dog just evaded him by climbing up the wall like a spider, it continued crawling until it was on the ceiling and just left.  
  
“...what.” Toriel replied, completely at a loss for words at the sight, “Papyrus, are you alright?”  
  
Papyrus just looked at Toriel, more than a little flustered, “THAT CRAWLING CANINE TOOK MY SPECIAL ATTACK TWO YEARS AGO, I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR IT EVER SINCE, AND HE JUST EVADED ME AGAIN!” He fell to his knees and pounded the ground.  
  
“heh, sounds like you got a real bone to pick with him.” Sans said, getting a grunt from the group but making Toriel completely lose her composure, Asriel thought it was pretty funny too.  
  
Frisk leaned in to Sans, “Didn't you prevent him from stealing that attack in this timeline?” They asked lowly so that nobody else could hear them, Sans just gave a bit shrug.  
  
“heh, after he knocked your socks off i made sure to point the little guy in the right direction.” He said with a mischievous wink, Frisk just gave a chuckle at that as the others got ready to go.  
  
“Alright Sans, where are we going?” Undyne said as she stretched out any leftover exhaustion.  
  
Sans looked around, “hmm, let's see, think dad said the one in hotland was near “a place where stars are born.” so if i had to guess, probably mettaton's stage, or around that area.” He shrugged, “even if you could understand the guy, he speaks in riddles half the time so it doesn't do you much good.”  
  
“Well, it's a place to start, let's head out, shall we?” Asgore said as he stepped forward to take the lead... only to stop after a second, “Er... where is this stage, again?”  
  
Everyone gave a collective sigh as Frisk stepped forward and waved for them to follow, “This way.” They said as they walked down the stairs, then to the right.  
  
The stage looked pretty decrepit after two years, the fake stars had fallen down and the old upholstery had been ripped apart by age, making it look more like the sight of a horrible battle than a starlit balcony for serenades. After a second of looking around, Undyne found something.  
  
“Hey! This looks like the same door we found in the CORE yesterday, this it?” She said, turning the knob and slowly opening the door, then, for no visible reason, she pulled it off the hinges and suplexed it, just because she could. Everyone else just stared at her as she stood up from the pile of splinters, “What?!” She said defensively.  
  
“Ermm, right, that aside, let's go in, shall we?” Ralochs said as he was the first inside, the room was at first glance, just a black void that seemed to go on forever, one by one they all filed in before a white noise started filling their heads again.  
  
“OH NO, NOT THIS AGAIN!” Papyrus said, putting his hands up to his (not) ears, only to drop them after a second, “OH, IT DOESN'T HURT.” He noticed.  
  
Sans looked around, “yeah, that's dad's voice, he's saying that we're getting a bit more used to him speaking, and uh...” He looked at Undyne, “he's telling me that you dunking that door back there just rooted this paradox in this time, so we don't need to worry about coming out a few weeks ago.” Undyne just gave a big smile at her aggressive door-handling skills paying off.  
  
“Hm.” Asgore said as he looked around, “So, what are we looking for here?” He started to walk a bit away before Sans called out, a bit louder than was normal for the skeleton.  
  
“he's saying to stay close to each other, stuff might get weird if we go too far away in here.” At that, Asgore immediately returned to the group, “as for what we're looking for.” He looked up, listening to the static continue to echo, “he's just saying find a paradox, something that doesn't belong.” He said, walking forward.  
  
“Hey, Gaster.” Ralochs said, the static echoed in just a fast enough pattern it could be construed as a response, “You exist beyond time in here, right?” He said, listening to the voice respond, he just looked at Sans, who nodded. The Boss Monster took in a deep breath, “I can remember other timelines that happened at the cost of some pretty bad pain, but since coming down here I've seen stuff I can't remember, that ending where Toriel became the queen, Alphys dying, and my trip on that stairway, do you know why?”  
  
Everyone else looked at him, there were looks of vindication on some of their faces, that they knew something was wrong and he was lying about something, the static just hissed through the air as Sans closed his eyes to listen, “he's telling us to walk and talk, he wants to show us something.” The stout skeleton began walking, everyone else staying close behind.  
  
As Gaster continued speaking, Sans continued translating, “simply put, you can't remember those timelines because.” Sans abruptly stopped, “wait, wait, did you just say that right, w.d? i must've misheard you.” Ralochs took a subtle swallow at that as Sans turned back around, “he said it's because you didn't exist.”  
  
Ralochs blinked, “Didn't... what do you mean? I'm right here, aren't I?” He said fearfully, looking at his hand to make sure he was, in fact, still there as the static continued hissing about. The world around them began to distort and take up a shape. They were all floating in midair in an empty Hotland, staring at the stairwell that led down.  
  
“dad says.” Sans continued with a sigh as they kept walking, ground was being moved under their feet, but the picture never changed, it just looked like they were walking in place in midair, “he says you're a “variable.” ral.” Ralochs took another swallow at that as he continued listening  
  
“Variable, what?” Asgore said, asking the question his brother was thinking.  
  
“he says he's going to back to a good starting point. back when the accident first happened, he was more happy about it, he was still in one piece and he could actually mess around with the flow of time, but then he saw something that horrified him, some kind of awful darkness in one of the timelines that made everything cut out.” Sans looked up at the top of the empty cavern, “then, frisk fell, and dad realized that they were the darkness, or at least a catalyst for it.”  
  
Ralochs, Frisk, Asriel and Sans all stopped dead at that realization, there was no doubt in their mind the darkness Gaster saw was the presence that possessed Frisk and made them kill everyone in that other timeline.  
  
“at first, he saw a decent enough ending, but he knew that if things continued as they were, everything would come to a halt one day, so when frisk reset to go for that first ending where the barrier broke, w.d rode the timeline of that reset to see how far back he could go, he had to find a way to stop it.”  
  
“I'M CONFUSED.” Papyrus said, voicing everyone else's feelings on the matter.  
  
“he's not done.” Sans said, cutting in, “he says he tried seven times to change the course of events, using what he could, but every time he reached into another timeline, another part of him was unable to come back on its own. seven timelines...” Sans said, “dad, you tried to save those other humans didn't you?” He said, causing a look of shock to come across the faces of the royal family, there was a telling lack of static, a yes spoken in silence.  
  
Sans stood there, “but nothing worked, the kids still died despite how hard dad tried to save them.” Asgore looked at the ground forlorn, only for Toriel to walk over and nuzzle up against him, bringing a weak smile back to his face.  
  
Ralochs frowned, “Seven timelines... but there were only six...” Suddenly, his mouth dropped and his eyes went wide with the shock of realization, “You... you mean...” He said, every muscle in his body frozen as the stairway the group faced began to show activity, a brown robed human walking down it, only to slip and fall screaming into the magma below.  
  
“when it was clear the six human souls used in asgore's plan weren't going to work...” Sans said, suddenly and drastically the static cleared up, and a bitter, sad voice rang out all around them.  
  
“I looked back farther, and then even farther still.” Gaster said as time rewound itself, showing the event again, except this time, when the human hit that loose foothold, a small, skeletal hand shot out of the ground and caught his fatal misstep, allowing him to continue on his way.  
  
The voice faded back into static again as the skeletal hand waved, acknowledging the group, Sans continued where his father left off, “you were a variable, my last hope to stop the darkness, a human that nobody remembered, whose timeline ended, i saved your life not knowing what would come next, and you surprised me.”  
  
Ralochs just sat down, staring blankly forward as Sans continued speaking for Gaster, “i learned some interesting things from that, the bravery you felt at surviving the stairway was the threshold of your courage, you became determined enough to gain the power to save and load, so i didn't have to save you again. you could also remember other timelines... it worked, but then came the question, how would you survive to the present?” Sans just looked at the scholar, who didn't even budge.  
  
“it... was interesting, watching your growth, you became the opposite of me. when i vanished, i was forgotten but the world moved on without me just fine, for you it was the opposite, the world shifted to make room for you existing past when you were supposed to die. you became the first human to ever absorb a monster's soul, your determination and the old king's magic rewrote the world so you became a monster yourself. even in the current events, you outright stole actions from others, had you not stopped the child with the dark blue soul, another nameless monster would have died in the process of taking them down, it's like that for many events you were involved in, you weren't exactly necessary, but your presence was felt, and appreciated regardless... until.”  
  
Ralochs raised his head, finishing the sentence, “Until that timeline where Frisk was possessed, when I managed to call them back from it... as you had intended since the day you intervened and saved me.” Sans just nodded.  
  
“i am... sorry if you feel betrayed, or used, but if frisk had finished that timeline possessed, not even a true reset would have saved the world, it would be doomed, from that day and every other day onwards.” Sans said, looking up at the static.  
  
“Ralochs.” Asgore said, walking over to his brother, who was just sitting there, lost in his own mind and not saying much of anything.  
  
“he's just... apologizing, over and over again for using you.” Sans said, closing his eyes as he walked forward into the vision, “hey, he's telling me this is what was stuck in this timeline, i uh, didn't think he meant it this literal, about the being stuck or about the parts of him.” He said as he reached and gave the hand stuck in a wall a big tug, pulling it out. It flailed for a second before fading away, “alright, he says that he's got his arm back, three pieces left.” Sans said, trying to not think too much on what he was just told.  
  
Everyone left the room, Asgore carrying his somewhat catatonic brother who was just staring blankly ahead. As they got outside back into the old stage, Asgore set him down and began speaking. “Ralochs, please, I know what you heard but-” Asgore started saying before being cut off.  
  
“So... I was just a tool, meant to give everyone another chance with no greater purpose?” Ralochs said, he stood up and looked towards the roof of the cavern... then he started laughing.  
  
Undyne clenched her fist, “I think he's losing it, if he's about to go crazy and attack, I... I... darn it!” Undyne said as she summoned her spear, the kids, and Papyrus, went behind her, just in case.  
  
Ralochs just stood there, laughing, louder and louder... and then the tears starting coming, “You mean if I hadn't been saved I would have just died there? I wouldn't have continued to Home and met Gorel, or Asgore, or Colonna, I wouldn't have met all my friends, or become a monster, and the world would have continued fine without me?”  
  
Toriel walked closer, “Please, do not think of it like that.” She said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, only for him to walk forward, still laughing.  
  
“I...I...” His laughter subdued itself into a genuinely bright smile, “Thank you! Thank you so much Gaster!” He screamed to the air, causing everyone to pause in shock as he just kept laughing, “I don't care that I was just a tool for you! You saved my life and let me know what it was like to have a family and friends I wouldn't ever replace! I don't care that I lost my arm because of what else I found! I don't care that I could have continued to not exist because it wouldn't affect anything, I do and it did! And I don't care that I just had one purpose to you, I fulfilled it and saved us, and the repercussions even brought Asriel back!”  
  
He fell to his knees with a mixture of tears, smiles and laughter, “Gaster... thank you.” He said as the rest of his family filed in to hug him. “A variable, yeah, I think I can live with being called that with this amazing life I've found.” He said through tears as he looked at the family and friends surrounding him.  
  
“OUR DADDY IS A WONDERFUL PERSON!” Papyrus all but screamed, a waterfall of tears coming out of his sockets “WHY IS THERE SO MUCH STUFF IN MY EYES!”  
  
“D-dang! Stop being so sappy! I can't handle it! Come here, you!” Undyne said, grabbing Papyrus and hugging him so hard he made a noise almost like a squeaky toy, “Oh my God Papyrus! That's hilarious!” She said, hugging him hard enough to make the noise again.  
  
“PLEASE STOP!” Papyrus pleaded.  
  
“it was a pretty cold thing to try to do dad, using someone just for a plan like that... but, it worked out for the best, and even he's happy, so i guess that doesn't really matter, huh?” Sans said, even he wasn't immune to the sight, wiping away a few tears running down a face that probably hadn't felt them in years.  
  
What felt like hours passed before the group hug broke apart, Ralochs just looked at everyone, a wide smile on his face, “Well, there are three more pieces to rescue, right? Let's get after them!” He said enthusiastically as he went to the access stairs.  
  
“It's been years since I've seen him look so sincerely hopeful.” Asgore said with a smile as he watched him walk off, “He hasn't smiled that wide since before he lost his arm, do you really think he's okay?” He said, looking to Toriel, she just smiled.  
  
“We all have to face some awful truths sometimes, dear, the fact that he could look at one like that and come out of it smiling? Yes, yes I believe he'll be fine.” She said.  
  
Frisk and Asriel shared a knowing look between one another before Frisk spoke, “To see something awful like that... to come out of it smiling.” Asriel nodded in response, understanding what Frisk was getting at. He was ready for that moment to come later, he was going to tell them what they deserved to know.  
  
Everyone walked back downstairs to Alphys' lab and then walked over the rickety bridge, the cool splashing and humidity feeling nice after being stuck in the convection heat for such a large amount of time.  
  
As they passed the welcome to Hotland sign, and then past the small river that used to carry ice to the core, Frisk suddenly realized what they were about to see and frowned, then spoke, “Hey, everyone.” They said, calling attention to them, “That awful timeline, the possessed one.” They took a small breath, “This is where I encountered Undyne.”  
  
Everyone shared an uneasy glance, none moreso than Undyne, who didn't look very thrilled at the thought of what they would see ahead.  
  
She immediately knew something was wrong when nothing happened at the arena she designated, they kept walking to the next room, with a rickety sort of bridge over it. A shadow of Frisk was standing there, and so was their and Asriel's friend, the monster kid, creatively-named Kid.  
  
Frisk looked away as the shadow tried to take a fatal swipe at the shadow of Kid, he could hear the shocked gasps and the growling from Undyne at what came next, they looked back to see Undyne cut cleanly in half because of the LOVE they had amassed upon taking the blow.  
  
“O-oh no.” Toriel said, horrified at the wound. Ralochs had stopped the visions of their fight with Sans so nobody had seen the killing blows to know what they looked like.  
  
Undyne seemed horrified most of all as she watched her form destabilizing, turning to dust... and then.  
  
“What... what's happening to me?” Undyne said as she watched her shadow re-form into a different body body, one that was bursting with power. The figure suddenly launched a hail of spears that looked like a rainstorm, the shadow of the human never stood a chance.  
  
“Undyne, you should have died instantly from a wound like that, but not only did you not, you came back even stronger, that power... that was determination.” Ralochs said as he watched the shadow come back for round two, she still easily cut down the human.  
  
“Sans... and Undyne.” Frisk said, “On that other path, they were the only threats I faced, Undyne killed me so many times.” They said, not daring to look up at the sight, “But, it's never enough, as desperately as I wanted my body back, as desperately as I want to let Kid go and reset, I just couldn't get control back.”  
  
Undyne was the one to walk over to Frisk and ruffle their hair, “Hey... don't worry about it, alright?” She said, looking back to the shadows, “I can imagine how crappy that must have been, to go through that in a body you weren't controlling, but it's not you, right?” They just nodded pitifully in response, “Then we don't need to see the end of this!” She said, throwing a spear and dispersing the shadows.  
  
“It bothers me, really, bothers the heck out of me, but I don't see any point worrying about something that doesn't exist anymore.” She said with a big toothy smile, Frisk just gave a weak one in return, “Come on! You can smile bigger than that!” She yelled, Frisk responded by giving a bigger, toothy grin.  
  
Ralochs looked over, “You dodged my question.” He said, only for her to growl at him, causing him to throw his arm up in fake surrender.  
  
“Kid first.” She said, standing, “And yeah, from what Alphys told me, I'm the only monster in history-” She interrupted herself and shot him a knowing glance, “ _Born_ , monster, in history, who can make their own determination, I've never had to use it though, according to Alphys it causes... bad stuff to happen to monsters.”  
  
Ralochs just nodded in understanding, content to let the conversation drop.  
  
“WOW UNDYNE, YOU'RE SO COOL!” Papyrus said as he walked over to poke at her, she just grabbed his finger.  
  
“Of course! What did you expect? I'm a hero!” She said with a bright smile on her face as she threw the skeleton over her shoulder by his finger.  
  
“It's amazing how these visions can just bounce off of them like this.” Asriel said as Frisk walked over, “I'm thankful though, we'd be so much worse off if it didn't.” He added.  
  
“yeah, they're really thick-skulled, aren't they.” Sans added as he continued walking.  
  
“Well, we should continue before the shadows come back.” Toriel said, snorting a bit at Sans' joke.  
  
Everyone nodded and continued forward through the shallow water and darkening lantern room.  
  
“Hmm, there's an old house nearby that me and Tori used to buy snails from, do you think it's abandoned?” Asgore said as the group walked into a room with a poorly lit path illuminated slightly by mushrooms.  
  
Frisk nodded twice, “That would be Napstablook's old house, they don't live there anymore, they're always touring with Mettaton, I think we're alright to stay there overnight.”  
  
Asgore just nodded as the group continued, immediately Ralochs took notice of the condition, “Oh wow, the rest of the underground's been preserved pretty well, but this place looks awful.” He poked idly at a wall and several snails slithered out of it, bringing a rather bright smile to the monster's face.  
  
“No, no.” Frisk said, “It's about the same as it was when they lived here.”  
  
Everyone relaxed and settled down for the night, the Boss Monsters enjoying a meal of fresh snails while Frisk and Undyne finished the food from the hotel, Papyrus and Sans just kept eating their spaghetti, there was finally a minor decrease in the bag's overall size after five nights of journeying.  
  
After dinner, everyone noticed Frisk and Asriel laying on the floor.  
  
“Uhm, what are you two doing?” Toriel questioned as she looked at her children.  
  
Frisk looked at them with a smile, “Oh, it's something Napsta taught us, we're feeling like garbage, come on, try it out everyone.”  
  
Despite the raised eyebrows, everyone else joined the kids in laying down and felt like garbage, after a few seconds passed the house rang out with a collective “Whooooooah.”  
  
Feeling like garbage was still awesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks, Frisk and Asriel are brotherly/platonic.
> 
> Huge revelations in this chapter, one of the things I wanted to do even in the first attempt at the story, but it wound up coming out as a huge mess, was explaining Ral's existence as a character in a universe that already had a pre-existing cast and backstory, how would someone like that just come into being? The answer of course being temporal interference, or someone interfering because they wanted him to have some part to play in things. Kind of my own attempt at looking into Undertale's meta-nature. I feel like Gaster, being someone who exists outside of "the universe" would be perfect for explaining how someone who wasn't there before could suddenly show up in a pre-established story.
> 
> This chapter was fun beyond words to write, some parts of it managed to make me tear up a bit (of course, anything sad becomes worse when the Undertale theme is playing) and I feel like that just made it better, because it let me know I was putting actual emotion into it.


	6. More Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go, another massive beast of a chapter.
> 
> [Here's the music I'd recommend for this chapter, starting when they enter the paradox proper.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1LIsrFdEuU)

Later that night, Asgore woke up and looked around, noticing that someone was missing from their group, he headed outside to look for them. Ralochs was sitting on the ground, dipping his feet in the ankle deep water, looking thoughtful.  
  
“It's still bothering you, isn't it?” Asgore spoke lowly as he walked up and sat down, his massive form eclipsing his adopted brother's.  
  
Ralochs just nodded, a bittersweet smile on his face, “It's strange isn't it? To think that everything is owed to the fact I was someone's last option.” He said, reaching his arm down and swirling the water some, “I wasn't being dishonest when I said I was thankful to Gaster for giving me the chance to live this life instead of dying where nobody would remember my name, but still, it could have just as easily been someone else, and the world would have continued to be the same without me.” He gave a sigh, only to receive a firm hand on his shoulder.  
  
“But he did pick you, and you do exist here, and I'm thankful for that, so is everyone else.” Asgore said as he shifted his position to lay on his back, Ralochs looked at him for a second, then followed suit by laying down as well, so they were both on their backs, staring at the false stars on the roof of the cave.  
  
The two stared at the roof for minutes in silence before Ral spoke, “No, I did change enough, besides just being there to prevent that possessed Frisk from ruining everything.” He said as he smiled, memories flashing through his head, “I was able to let our father stay with us, even long after his physical body turned to dust. I was able to save someone else from dying in the process of taking down that violent third child, a loss of an arm is nothing to the loss of a life.” He reached up, as if trying to grab the crystal stars, “Gaster probably would have found that stuff anyway, or it may have washed into the dump for others to find, but I made it easier to keep us relevant to humans by stealing books and such, making sure our culture never got too far behind theirs.”  
  
“What I'm saying is, it bothers me, but I won't let it stop me from going on into the future, if I've fulfilled Gaster's plan for me, than that leaves what comes next to me and me alone.” He said confidently.  
  
The two stayed there like that for hours, talking about that far off past, the events Ral lived that probably would have changed by his presence alone. Eventually the others woke up and came to check where the two had vanished to, then came to bring them back so everyone could leave for the rest of their journey as a group.  
  
Well, mostly everyone.  
  
“HAHAHA!” A loud noise rang out from the general area of Undyne's burnt out old house, “I can't believe it survived the fire!” Undyne said as she walked out of the wreckage with a broadsword the size of a minivan slung around her shoulder, “Man! This was the first thing Alphys made for me, would have sucked if I lost it!” She said, grinning from ear-fin to ear-fin.  
  
“Well Sans.” Toriel said as everyone gathered up, ready to head on, “Where is the next location?”  
  
Sans tapped at his skull, trying to think, “let's see, his cryptic hint was “stay the course, and you will see.” so if i had to guess, it's probably just along the way, off to the side somewhere.”  
  
“Really? That simple?” Undyne said, Sans looked at her and gave a shrug.  
  
“well, he can't exactly control where they land, it kind of makes sense one or two of 'em would just be sitting there along the beaten path.” He responded with a large shrug as he walked into the next room, the others looked for a second before following.  
  
The next room, and the only way to the rest of Waterfall would be that little gap, Frisk remembered the route well, there used to be a small bird that would carry him over the gap to the way back, no such luck this time though.  
  
“Well, looks like we're jumping it.” Ral said, it wouldn't be too hard for the adults to leap over the gap, they were all pretty fit, the children were quickly put up on Asgore's shoulders as he stepped back, ran, and took a huge leap over the chasm to the excited cheers of his children.  
  
Undyne used her new broadsword to vault over the gap  and Papyrus… just kind of ran through the air, even Toriel managed to make the jump, though it looked suspiciously like she just sort of floated over.  
  
“Alright, Sans?” Ral said, looking over to see that Sans was nowhere in sight, upon looking back over to where the others were, he saw Sans already standing over there and raised an eyebrow.  
  
“OH, SANS, DID YOU FIND ANOTHER ACCESS ROUTE?” Papyrus said as he noticed his brother behind him and turned around, Sans shrugged again.  
  
“nah, we've fixed enough of the weirdness going on that i was able to find my old shortcut for this area, looks like they're working again.” He said, waving to the Boss Monster still over the gap. Ral took a run up, then tripped on a rock and flew face-first into the water. His brother fished him out and he just spat out a small mouthful of water, sopping wet.  
  
Ralochs just stood there making an annoyed grunting as he summoned up a gentle warmth and flooded it over his body, drying him off, and promptly making his robes balloon from his fur poofing out under the robe. He looked less than amused as everyone started laughing at his misfortune.  
  
As they walked to the next room, they came up to another path, a way directly forward and one that branched off to the side, they were ready to keep heading forward when Asriel stopped, “Uhm, hey, everyone?” He said, tapping his fingers together, “Can we, well, can mom and dad and me make a quick detour?” He said, looking down the other path. Frisk smiled weakly at that, he knew where Asriel was wanting to go.  
  
“Of course, my child.” Toriel said as she looked at Asgore, who nodded.  
  
“AW, WHY CAN'T I GO, I WANT TO GO!” Papyrus said as he tried to walk forward, only for Undyne to put him in a sit-hold.  
  
“Think for a second what's down that way, Papyrus.” She said, looking annoyed at the skeleton. Papyrus sat there for a second thinking, before his face lit up with realization, then he half-closed his eyesockets, about the saddest look he could put on.  
  
“We'll be back shortly, everyone.” Asgore said as the the three monsters walked off, leaving the rest of the group to loiter for a bit.  
  
“Asriel, what did you wish to show us that was down this way?” Toriel questioned as her child led her by the hand, Asgore just behind.  
  
“Honey... do you remember what's down this way?” Asgore said, becoming very somber. Toriel thought on it for a minute before gasping, and closing her eyes some in sorrow.  
  
The three walked that short distance, past the long water-logged hallway and the room with the piano above it, to the sight of that familiar statue with a rain-rotted umbrella in its hands.  
  
“This statue is.” Asgore said, taking a seat, “This place where water always fell, we chose to build the memorial here, to remind us of that sad day.” He explained, trying to not cry.  
  
“My child, you know what this is, don't you?” Toriel was trying her best to hold in her tears as well, wondering why Asriel would bring them to his own roadside memorial, Asriel just gave a weak smile and walked into the next room, then returned with an umbrella in his hands, he positioned it over the statue, then that song started to play, Asgore and Toriel both gave a slight gasp.  
  
“Frisk showed me this on our journey, at first I didn't realize what it was, but... then it hit me, I cried so hard, for such a long time.” Asriel said, tears started to flow, “I still can't describe what it was like, looking at something meant to keep a memory of me alive after my own death, but that was when Frisk told me...” He walked over and sat down in his father's lap, his mother dropped to her knees and hugged both of them, they were all crying.  
  
“Frisk told me here, that I would be able to come back to life, that I would get to see you guys again. I was speechless.” He said, looking at the statue. Despite the tears, he was smiling, “I just wanted to come back here, to hear this song again with my own ears, and not through Frisk's, I just wanted to know this isn't a dream, or a lie, I'm really here with you guys.” He said, tears coming down his face like the rain hitting that umbrella.  
  
After a few seconds, a soft voice filled the air in rhythm of the music box's melody, Toriel was humming along to the song, “Mom...” Asriel said, his tears subsiding. Soon, Asgore joined in too, humming that same melody, a song meant to console a crying prince, turned into a song of remembrance, and now, it was being hummed to serve its original purpose once again.  
  
Against the walls of the other room over, everyone else sat there crying ugly tears and smiling, keeping a respectful silence of the moment despite their eavesdropping, even Papyrus wasn't saying a word for their sake.  
  
Minutes passed as Asriel kept his head in his dad's chest, smiling happily, “Let's head back, the others are waiting on us.” Asgore said as he stood, his son still in his arms, there was a sudden, loud shuffle of footsteps against the other room that caused Asgore to raise a brow.  
  
“Well, I do not quite believe they were waiting.” She said with a wistful sigh, “But, at least they did not interrupt us.” She added, smiling. Asgore just gave a nod as they walked back to rejoin the others.  
  
Everyone was trying their hardest to be discreet, but Papyrus was an awful liar, “WELCOME BACK! I TRUST YOU ALL ENJOYED YOUR WALK DOWN THE HALLWAY THAT WE MOST DEFINITELY DID NOT FOLLOW YOU AND LISTEN IN ON!” He said, sweating profusely and getting tackled by Undyne to shut him up. Asriel just started laughing at that.  
  
“well, if everyone's done, let's get moving, yeah?” Sans said as he started walking down the hallway, the others followed, talking idly amongst themselves about various things until they reached the end of the wooden docks into the next area, “oh, yeah, forgot about this, hey uh, anyone got a boat on 'em?” He said with a wink, looking to the rest of the group.  
  
“Hrm, well that's no good, I can't swim, Asgore's wearing armor, and I'm not sure if either of the kids can either.” Ral said, looking across the underground lake to the other side, there wasn't another way to continue since the monster that used to ferry people left the underground.  
  
“Pffft! Watch and be amazed!” Undyne said as she lept into the water, then surfaced a second later holding the broadsword like a platform, “All aboard!” She screamed.  
  
“This does not seem safe.” Toriel said as she picked up Asriel, Asgore followed suit and picked up Frisk.  
  
“But what choice do we have?” Ralochs said with a defeated sigh as he stepped onto the sword, feeling Undyne sink slightly.  
  
“SHE'S MORE THAN STRONG ENOUGH TO LIFT US, I HAVE NOTHING BUT FAITH IN UNDYNE.” Papyrus added, full on jumping on the sword and causing Undyne to bob under for a second.  
  
“Hey! No jumping!” She yelled from below the group as Asgore and Toriel got on, “Come on Sans, just waiting on you!” She called out as she sank under the water entirely, to a passerby it would just look like everyone is standing on a floating sword.  
  
“Is she going to be okay, doesn't she need to breath?” Ral asked, looking over the side to see her under the water with a huge smile on her face.  
  
“Ralochs.” Toriel said, looking to the scholar, “She's a fish.”  
  
Ral immediately blushed at being called out for such a dumb statement, he just kind of sputtered a bit as Sans gave a wave and walked into a wall, vanishing into a shortcut.  
  
“THAT'D BE A GO FOR IT, UNDYNE!” Papyrus called out more than loud enough for her to hear under the water, she began to swiftly carry the group across to the other side, perhaps a bit too fast.  
  
She all but slammed into the dock on the other side of the lake, sending everyone flying, “Whoops!” She called out as she surfaced and climbed onto the docks, looking at everyone sprawled out, “Well that wasn't what I mean to happen!” She said with a cheeky smile on her face, then started laughing.  
  
“Still not the most damage she's ever done to me on accident.” Frisk deadpanned as they stood up and brushed themselves off.  
  
“and that's why i went the other way.” Sans said as he walked out of the wall and looked at everyone else as they shook off their disorientation, “we're getting closer.” He said as he started to walk, only to stop when Ral started speaking.  
  
“Hey, guys...” He said, looking at the carvings on the wall, “I forgot we had our history carved on these walls, should we really just leave it like this?” He said, running his hand down the part of the story talking about SOULs.  
  
“What do you mean?” Asgore said, looking at the carvings, “Oh, these.” He frowned as he looked down them, each part told the story of the war, about how SOULs could be absorbed, and how that's what led to the war.  
  
“It happened because humans learned it was possible, the first war, that is.” The scholar said as he put a bit more pressure against the wall, “Archaeologists will come down here eventually, human ones, do we really want them learning and telling everyone it's possible, when that's what made the war happen?” He looked conflicted as a gentle red flame came to his hand, he was ready to destroy it.  
  
“You are suggesting we erase our history to preserve our future...” Toriel said, glancing to the side unsure, “I would normally say no, but, you are not incorrect.” She didn't sound happy about the conflict he was presenting.  
  
Everyone else glanced to one another, but before anyone else could make their feelings known, Asgore stepped up. “No.” He said sternly as he walked forward, everyone else looked at him, “We will not lie about it again, if it's found out after we cover it up, then that would lead to an even worse breach of the trust we have made. We will not mention it, but should humans learn about it one day, then we won't deny it, we'll be honest with them and be sure to tell them that we would never think of doing such a thing.”  
  
Ralochs looked at Asgore for a second before smiling and pulling his hand away from the wall, “As you say, your majesty.” His smile turned into a smirk as Asgore frowned and started grumbling, Asgore hated his close friends and family calling him by title and he knew Ral knew that, but it was always his first response to his brother flexing his royal authority.  
  
“I AGREE, LOOK AT HOW MANY HUMAN FRIENDS WE'VE MADE ON THE SURFACE, I DON'T THINK WE NEED TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!” Papyrus said as he looked over at everyone else, goofy smile still on his face.  
  
He wasn't wrong, two years was such a short time, but humans had adjusted well, there was the stray hate group every now and then, but it was easy to keep people like that in check when other people liked monsters so much. Not to mention that it was generally a bad idea to go after something that could very easily kill you in self-defense, it takes a special kind of sociopath to have the kind of hate that would kill a monster in a single blow, not even the most disgusting racist was capable of hating so much.  
  
“We have Frisk as proof that we'd never try to do anything like that, everyone in the world knows how happy they are with us, and how happy we are with them, even if they learned of it, I think we'd be okay.” Asriel looked to Frisk with a smile.  
  
Everyone eventually filed into the next room, the bridge seeds were still firmly in place to allow them to be crossed, thankfully. The next room was mostly empty, then they found it, that same oppressive gray that stood out against the vivid colors of Waterfall. Sans gave Undyne a knowing look and she destroyed the door, then everyone went inside.  
  
“alright, remember the rules and keep close, and keep an eye out for somethin' weird.” Sans said as everyone walked inside the black void into another paradox.  
  
“Weird.” Ralochs snorted, wondering if Sans picked up the irony of saying that when they were walking in a time paradox. Eventually, the world started shifting and the static rang out, it was much softer this time, and at points, a soft voice could even be heard speaking through it.  
  
“dad says he wants to show us something else this time, it'll lead us to his missing part like the last one did.” Sans said, narrating his father's words as the world around them shifted to an unfamiliar laboratory, “this... dad, you sure?” Sans said, suddenly looking very nervous as the static hissed, “yeah... yeah.”  
  
“This is Gaster's lab.” Asgore said, “I'm remembering seeing this place once.” He looked around at the area, Sans just nodded.  
  
“'s a good thing, then, means it's getting easier to remember stuff about him, so it's working.” Sans responded as he continued looking around, “i never really got it, dad, why did you want so desperately to be able to travel through time after being content with looking so long?”  
  
There was a long pause before the static spoke again, whatever it said made Sans stop mid-step, “...you... mean that?” He said, looking up.  
  
“WHAT, WHAT DID HE SAY?” Papyrus asked, walking closer to his brother and looked up at where the voice was coming from, it just kept hissing, and Sans, tellingly, wasn't translating.  
  
“i... always thought you just wanted to mess something up, but... really?” He just closed his eyes, listening to him narrate in that voice only he could understand. Eventually, Sans continued walking, and everyone followed.  
  
“dad says... he did it for us.” Suddenly, the room started showing activity, Gaster as he once was, a whole creature, walked into the room with a bunch of unfamiliar monsters surrounding him, he spoke for a bit words that the party couldn't hear before flipping on the machine and stepping into it. Everyone watched as the machine sparked as it turned on, how Gaster's form destabilized, and then suddenly the machine exploded and Gaster was sent flying out of the room, and all the others just vanished into the air.  
  
“he's saying he looked into the machine and saw our deaths, mine and pap's.” Sans didn't seem happy to say that, “we died when we were baby bones, slipped in some ice and fell down... we never woke up.” Papyrus gasped slightly, then walked forward, “when he saw that, he knew he had to change the future no matter the cost, for our sake, and... well, you see where it got him, but... it worked.” The world around them changed again to Snowdin, two young skeletons running about playing in the snow when they hit a slick of ice and went sliding, almost over a tall cliffside.  
  
Gaster's arm shot out of the ground and grabbed the younger Papyrus' legs before he could go over, making him grab Sans so he stopped too, then made them both trip from the momentum yanked out from under them.  
  
Papyrus just stared forward, “I... I THINK I REMEMBER THIS, SANS GOT SO MAD AT ME UNTIL HE SAW WHERE WE WERE SLIDING, THEN HE JUST WOULDN'T STOP THANKING ME.”  
  
Sans opened his eyes again, “yeah, it was a pretty slick move there, dad.” Sans said, the static started crackling in and out, was Gaster laughing? “so... that's why you were gone so long, fixing up that machine to be able to be used and not just watched, why you never came home, i... always thought you just wanted to mess up time for the sake of messing around but... you did it for us.” He paused as the static spoke again, then the voice cleared entirely, just for one sentence;  
  
“It was always for you two.” Gaster said mournfully.  
  
Papyrus was crying, even Sans seemed to be shedding some tears, “dad... we're getting you out of here, alright? then we can all go back to the surface together, try pap's spaghetti, throw puns around until he's ready to knock our blocks off.” He didn't sound certain of his words as he walked over and grabbed the arm jutting out of the ice, “just wait for us, it won't be long.” He said as pulled the arm out of the paradox, it too disappeared, just like the last one.  
  
As everyone filed out of the paradox and it vanished behind them, Papyrus looked at everyone, “WOWIE, I, ER, UHM.” He said, everyone just stared at him wide-eyed with shock, Papyrus was, for once, genuinely speechless about something. Eventually, he shook his head, “WELL, WHAT ARE WE WAITING FOR? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE A FAMILY MEMBER TO SAVE, NYEH HEH HEH!” He laughed as he marched off towards Snowdin, everyone else smiled.  
  
Frisk hung back with Sans and poked him lightly, “You okay?” They said as they looked at him, he had never dropped his smile, but there was a certain kind of... weariness in his expression, the look of someone ready to give up.  
  
Sans just shook his head, “no.” He said, then walked into a wall and vanished, dodging the rest of the conversation and making Frisk frown, he wasn't telling them something, that was immediately obvious.  
  
As they walked out to the mouth of the cavern they felt that brisk, unforgiving chill of Snowdin run across their bodies, Undyne and Frisk began to shiver, everyone else seemed fine with it due to the mix of fur or being a skeleton.  
  
They arrived at the absolute border between the two areas when more shadows manifested, Frisk, suddenly, yelled, “No! Not this one!” Everyone turned to them, surprised at the sudden outburst, they were always so good about controlling themselves, this was uncharacteristic.  
  
As they looked forward, they saw the shadows were Frisk and Papyrus. Things had been predictable enough that they all knew what it meant by this point as Frisk started crying, “Papyrus...” They said, “Everyone else at least made the attempt to stop me, thought it was the only way, but Papyrus, he...” They took a swallow, looking away as the shadows got closer to one another.  
  
“FRISK, PLEASE DO NOT CRY, MY FRIEND.” Papyrus said, kneeling down to put a hand on Frisk's shoulder  
  
“When... when that presence took control of me, I eventually went into a haze and just kind of floated there, not really in control of myself anymore, when... when Papyrus tried to stand in my way though, that was when I was still me, that was when I could still struggle against it.” They weren't able to hold it in anymore, tears started flowing as it became clear the shadow of Papyrus wasn't going to fight back.  
  
“Papyrus offered to spare me, to let me go ahead, he took me getting closer as a sign I wanted a hug, I... I... I remember struggling against it so hard, trying again and again to break free but it was like I was just strung up, I'm sorry, Papyrus!” Frisk cried as the shadow of another timeline struck and the other Papyrus turned to dust.  
  
“Frisk... how terrible.” Toriel said, falling to her knees to comfort them.  
  
“FRISK...” Papyrus said, looking distressed, “BUT YOU DID BREAK FREE.” Frisk looked up at that, “YOU BROKE FREE AND YOU BECAME MY FRIEND AGAIN ANYWAY, SO IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT, OKAY?!” Frisk just turned to Papyrus and cried into his armor, he just started petting their head in response.  
  
“Yeah Frisk, we've seen it over and over again, we know the kind of person you are, and it's not... that.” Undyne said, watching the shadows reset to do it again, then turning away from it with a frown.  
  
Asgore walked over and sat down beside him, “I know you still feel the guilt of that timeline, but it was never you, the way you look back on that, the way it haunts you, makes you cry, that tells me every time, it's not you, so please Frisk, please, for the sake of your friends, for all of us, you don't have to keep apologizing, it wasn't you.”  
  
“Frisk, someone who could do things like that wouldn't have gone through such an awful journey to bring someone like me back.” Asriel said as he sat down in front of where Frisk was starting to settle down, “Especially after all the awful things Flowey did, and that you told me the time I went with you was harder than any other time, you wouldn't have done that if you were the person we see in those shadows.”  
  
It was clear their words were calming them down, but there was nothing they had to say, Frisk just sat there in silence, eventually muttering a weak thanks to all of their friends as Papyrus lifted them up to his shoulder to carry them into the old Snowdin Town.  
  
The town had frozen over with no heating, most of the furniture and such had been moved out, leaving just empty shells of housing, a bit of gentle heat from Toriel's fire magic allowed the door to the old inn to be opened up so everyone could get inside.  
  
“You two alright? You look cold.” Ralochs said, taking note of Undyne and Frisk shaking like a Temmie.  
  
“What do you think, fluffball?! Unlike you we're in bare skin.” Undyne snapped, less than happy with the situation.  
  
“DO NOT FRET, I HAVE FOUND SPARE BLANKETS!” Papyrus said as he came into the inn room with a huge blanket and threw it on the two who were shaking, Undyne wanted to scream, but it was clear she was appreciating the warmth.  
  
Eventually the cold even began to soak through the boss monster's fur, they all gathered under the blanket and eventually wound up falling asleep in one big pile on the floor after having another night of spaghetti.

* * *

  
  
After a few hours passed into the night, Frisk got up and walked to the brother's old house. Sans hadn't turned up for the rest of the night, but Frisk had a pretty good idea they knew where to find him. They walked behind the old house and tapped on the hidden door, it slowly swung open.  
  
Sans was sitting there on the empty bench, staring at the empty space where the machine used to be, he had apparently taken it out of the underground at some point.  
  
“hey.” Sans said as he saw Frisk come in, “aren't you cold?” He added, noticing that they were still wearing the same striped shirt as always. Frisk just sat down next to them.  
  
“Freezing.” They said, looking to Sans, “What aren't you telling us, Sans?” They added, getting right to the point.  
  
Sans gave a weak chuckle, “you've always been uncomfortably perceptive, guess you wouldn't have survived your journey not killing anyone if you weren't though.” He sighed, “frisk, tell me something, is it merciful to put someone out of their misery?” Frisk's head jolted at that, “or would you rather let someone keep suffering just because it makes you happy, or you don't have the will to go through with it despite it being for the best?” He closed his eyes, looking forlorn.  
  
“Sans, what's going to happen to Gaster?” Frisk said, watching their friend's motions and expression very carefully.  
  
Sans shook his head, “when dad... gaster, got scattered through time, it was at the same moment that explosion sent him flying into the core, he was in the middle of dying when he got thrown into that purgatory.” The skeleton looked up towards the roof, “those cracks on his face, he didn't used to have those.”  
  
Frisk blinked, putting two and two together, “He still exists in that moment?” Sans nodded.  
  
“like i said, perceptive. if we do this, if we help dad be restored, i'm not sure, but... if he's restored as he was the minute he was lost in time, he won't come back to life, he'll die.” Sans tried to speak, but the new few words got caught on his throat before he could continue, “frisk, we may not be restoring him to come live happily with us, we may be doing it so he can finally be free of the hell he's been stuck in so he can die.”  
  
Frisk reached over and put a sympathetic hand on the skeleton's back.  
  
“frisk, at first i didn't care, but seeing why he did it, knowing, why he did it... frisk, can i kill my own dad, even if it's what he wants to happen to him?”  
  
Frisk didn't hesitate, “Find the third way.” They said, Sans immediately raised his head at that, “When I broke the barrier the first time, I remember feeling helpless about not being able to bring Asriel back with us, I hated myself, spent every day since the reset wishing I could do something for him. And... what came after wasn't what I wanted to happen, but it still gave me that chance, the third path showed itself.” They gave a bright smile, “Just keep thinking, keep looking, and stay determined, we'll find a way to bring him back with us together.”  
  
Sans sat there before looking at Frisk with a smile, “dang, kid.” He said, laughing to himself, “you really are something special, aren't you?”  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoo, what can I say about this one? I honestly have no idea, I'm just continuing to wear my emotions on my sleeve as I write and it's making things better and better, I feel.
> 
> Rocks have some kind of grudge against Ralochs, I swear.
> 
> I uh... don't actually know where the Gaster door in Waterfall is, so I just took the best guess I could to keep the narrative flow consistent.
> 
> A lot happened in this chapter that was really emotional, the return to the memorial, the revelation of why Gaster wanted to screw around with time, seeing the No Mercy Papyrus fight and how much it haunted Frisk over everything else they'd seen.
> 
> Hope you guys got as feelsy reading this one as I did writing it.
> 
> Next chapter is going to be... unique *steeples fingers*.


	7. Doppelganger

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do these keep getting bigger?
> 
> No music recommendations this time, maybe various boss themes?
> 
> Maybe violence warning in this chapter? I'm not sure if it's explicit enough for tags, but there is fighting going on.

“HEY, SANS.” Papyrus called out as he looked around their old house, having somehow wiggled out of the mound his friends had turned into after they'd all fallen asleep, “SAAAAAANS!”  He called again, going up and opening the door to his room, nowhere in sight. He gave an annoyed grunt and turned around, only to see Sans standing right there, “THERE YOU ARE! I WAS WONDERING WHERE YOU HAD GOTTEN TO, YOU DIDN'T COME BACK SO I WAS GETTING WORRIED.” He sounded distressed.  
  
Sans, for his part, just patted his brother on the side, about the closest he could get to the shoulder with the height difference, “sorry, bro, just had some stuff i had to go do.” He walked over and sat on the old, half-frozen couch.  
  
“WHAT KIND OF STUFF.” Papyrus replied, his eyes getting shifty, Sans sighed in response.  
  
“well, not so much doing as thinking.” He didn't want to tell him, he really didn't.  
  
“SANS, YOU REMEMBER WHAT I DON'T ABOUT DAD, RIGHT? WHAT WAS HE LIKE?” Sans' eyes went dark, like someone had just pierced him with a knife, Papyrus had no way of knowing so he couldn't blame him, but it still hurt.  
  
Sans took a sigh, “well...” He pulled out another bottle of ketchup and gave it a quick chug, almost like someone sneaking a drink out of a flask, “he was always the smartest cookie in the underground, he had a good three-hundred years on everyone else, and that time machine just made the gap even larger.”  
  
“WOW, THAT WOULD MAKE HIM... OLD!” Papyrus exclaimed, trying and failing to count just how long.  
  
“yeah, bones like us are on the longer side of how long monsters can expect to live, according to ral, our gramps was nearly seven-hundred before he turned to dust from age.” Sans said, shaking his head, “dad was... he was always real busy, he didn't come home much and when he did it wasn't for long, that's probably why you forgot about him instead of disappearing like the others that knew him well, he wasn't really that close to you.” There was a clear sense of regret in his voice, he clearly used to hate Gaster for that, but after hearing why he did it, there wasn't much point in holding onto those thoughts.  
  
“BUT HE STILL CARED ABOUT US, YOU SAW HOW HE SAVED OUR LIVES.” The taller skeleton exclaimed, thinking back to what Gaster showed them the previous day.  
  
“yeah, he did.” Sans said, “i took interest in helping him with his time travel stuff because i wanted to know what was so important to him he'd pay so little attention to his own family, i wasn't expecting it to be, well, that.” He shook his head, closing his eyes, “i said some pretty awful things to him, the night before the accident, i just want to be able to apologize for them.”  
  
Papyrus walked over to his brother and put a hand on his skull, giving a kind of casual lean into him, “WELL, YOU'LL GET THAT CHANCE MORE THAN ONCE, ALL WE NEED TO DO IT KEEP GOING TO GET HIM BACK, THEN HE CAN COME HOME WITH US AND YOU CAN APOLOGIZE ALL YOU WANT!” He smiled brightly, then paused for a second, “S-SANS, WHY ARE YOU CRYING?”  
  
Sans reached up and wiped away the tears running out of his skull, “nothing, just thinking, it'll be... pretty great to have him back, won't it?” Papyrus couldn't pick up on the nuances of his tone, he took it at face value, patting his brother on the shoulder before heading back to the others.  
  
“no, frisk is right, i need to think of something, we're getting him back.” Sans said, feeling something he hadn't felt in his life, a drive to do something that required him to take action. He wasn't making determination, but the drive he felt may as well have been the same to him.

* * *

  
  
The next morning came, it took a while for everyone to untwist themselves from the huge pile they'd all fallen into while they were sleeping, but at least everyone was kept warm through the night because of it.  
  
As everyone sorted themselves, they walked outside, “alright.” Sans said as he walked up, he hadn't slept with everyone else, there wasn't much telling where he had gone after his and Frisk's heart-to-heart last night, but he seemed to have slept decently enough, “next place is, 'ccording him, “a mysterious place.”, gee, thanks dad.” He said, winking.  
  
“That's not very descriptive.” Asgore said as Frisk started walking with purpose, beckoning them to follow, everyone blinked before going after them.  
  
“It's strange isn't it, Frisk seems to know the underground better than we do, I guess that's what happens when someone has to go through their journey four times.” Ralochs said as he followed behind. Eventually the group came upon two shadows at Greater Dog's old posting.  
  
“Wait, why is this here?” Frisk said as they tilted their head, “That shadow isn't GD.” They said as the shadow took up more form. It looked like Papyrus, but there was something off about it, a certain kind of emptiness in his eyes as he walked forward and vanished.  
  
“I THINK THIS MUST HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE TIMELINES WHERE SANS TOLD ME A BAD PUN.” Papyrus said, “THAT'S THE ONLY TIME I MAKE THAT FACE.” He added as they continued walking along the path, there was a suspicious glance in Sans' eyelights.  
  
As everyone else kept walking, eventually taking a turn to the left, Asriel took note of something, “Hey, Undyne, where did that sword go?” He said, taking note that the massive weapon Undyne had was nowhere in sight, despite not being easily hidden away.  
  
Undyne just gave a smile, “Put it in my phone's box, didn't want it getting lost down any pits or anything.” She said, reaching up to take out her cell phone, “I'm amazed it fit in there, technology is great, ain't it?!” She laughed.  
  
They walked across a short pathway into a cool, silent cave, at the end were four switch-shrooms and a door covered by a drape with the Delta Rune on it, “This looks unlike every other location, are you sure this is the right place, Sans?” Toriel said, taking note of the different appearance. Sans just walked up and moved the drape back, revealing the same ominous black void.  
  
He went to take a step forward, to head into the paradox, when Gaster's distorted voice echoed out even through it, “...what?” Sans said, taking a step back, Sans was starting to sweat as he looked towards the others, “dad's saying to get ready for a fight.” That caused everyone to tense up.  
  
“What? Didn't you say this paradox was harmless, Sans?” Asgore said, looking into the blackness and feeling a kind of dread come over him.  
  
“this paradox, yeah, the paradox we're about to rescue dad from? apparently he thinks there's a threat in there, something that'll attack us, just be ready.” He said as he looked at everyone.  
  
Asgore took a small swallow as he felt the magic run to his arms needed to summon his trident, Undyne took hold of her spear, Sans and Papyrus didn't really do much of anything, and Toriel and Ral let their hands glow with gentle fire magic.  
  
Toriel looked back towards the children, “Frisk, Asriel, please remain here and wait for our return.” She said, only to notice Frisk staring distracted at the wall, “Frisk?” She questioned, her child turned towards the group with a frown.  
  
“Everyone, I just had to LOAD.” Frisk said, causing a shocked expression to run across all of their faces, “Guys, whatever is in there is a serious threat, be careful, and watch out for dirty moves.” They said, giving them all advice as they sat down and produced a blanket from Toriel's phone, beckoning Asriel closer so they could stay warm while they waited, they seemed content to stay behind, which was very unlike them.  
  
“That's not okay, Frisk, what happened?” Undyne said, looking towards the child, they just gave a deep sigh and a shake of their head.  
  
“I... one of you didn't come out.” They said, causing everyone's expressions to go grim, “Just please, be careful.” They said.  
  
After a few seconds spent with even more preparation, they entered the paradox and the sheet closed behind them. Asriel looked to Frisk, worried, “Frisk, what happened?” He asked, cuddling against his shivering sibling to keep them warm.  
  
“I insisted on going inside, and the thing inside that paradox targeted me... mom jumped in the way.” They said, frowning, “I didn't even think, I just loaded a SAVE I made right before we went inside.” They gave a swallow at that, hoping that removing themselves from the equation would make things go better.  
  
As everyone entered the paradox, Gaster began speaking and Sans began translating, “i'm sorry in advance for any injuries, but this paradox is unique.” He raised a brow, “we figured the second you asked us to get ready for a fight, the heck's going on in here, dad?” Everyone else was clearly wary, looking for an attack from any direction.  
  
Gaster began speaking again, “he's telling me how he watched other potential timelines that he could have replaced this one with if ral didn't end up working out, better to replace everything than just leave one that ended horribly forever.” Ralochs nodded at that. “anyway, he's telling me that one timeline he looked into... wound up looking back, there was another world where we were all awful people, but instead of injecting determination into dying monsters for her experiments, she injected it into us.”  
  
“Okay, and what does THAT mean?” Undyne said as the world started to shift, she looked to Sans only to notice that look on his face, even through that unceasing grin, he was scared out of his mind.  
  
“dad's sayin' that he looked at that timeline too long and the shadows of it became determined enough to linger, they were aware, and they trapped him so he couldn't come back together, in other words, there's a false timeline where our shadows are sentient, sociopathic and pissed, and we're walkin' right into it.” As he finally started walking again, he added, “just remember, shadows of another timeline mean they don't exist like we do, they don't have a SOUL or a greater purpose, i know it's harder for some of you than others, but don't hesitate to put them in the dirt.”  
  
As the world shifting began to make more sense, everyone came to realize where they were, the throne room of New Home, except instead of golden flowers, the floor was lined with bramble. In front of the group stood another group of six, like they were eagerly awaiting their arrival. Gaster's legs were stuck in some kind of strange device, presumably the way the denizens of this timeline kept him rooted in it.  
  
Twisted looking shades of everyone stood before them, weapons drawn and at the ready.  
  
The phantom of Asgore looked up, “So, you are the “real” us, are you not? Hmph, that look in your eye disgusts me. You're supposed to be the “real” king of monsters?” The shadow threw his cape off and revealed his black armor, “This should be a simple fight.”  
  
Asgore cringed, “Must this be the only way? Perhaps a cup of tea would better serve to solve this conflict, I feel-” Before he could finish his sentence, the shadow launched a line of fire at Asgore, making him cut himself off to dodge to the side.  
  
Toriel's other self cackled like a witch, “Soft, that is what you and him are in the real world, how unfortunate for you then, that you face us, those willing to eagerly do what we must for our people.” She smiled as she waved a hand through the air, summoning a wave of fireballs.  
  
Toriel stood her ground, summoning fireballs in just the right position to cancel our her clone's, “He is soft, to the point where he made a mistake it took me a decade to forgive him for, but you mistake that softness for lack of will to do what must be done? Then you are mistaken.” She said as the fireballs swelled in size and blitzed towards her other self.  
  
Undyne stood in front of her shadow, cheeky grin on her face, “So, this is like one of those anime where you end up fighting your shadow that's everything you aren't huh? This shouldn't be hard, you should be a total wimp!” She said as she flung a spear at the shadow, it just blocked it.  
  
“Wimp?!” Undyne's shadow hissed at her, “I am the captain of the royal guard, you're the fake one here, all these stupid theatrics and dumb gimmicks, giving people “chances”, god you piss me off!” The shadow said as it surrounded Undyne in a full circle of spears and made them close in on her at once, Undyne did her best to deflect as many as she could, but a few of them struck her, causing her to give a yell of pain.  
  
“Damn! Watch their attacks guys, their LOVE is huge!” She cried out as she readied her counterattack.  
  
Papyrus stood in front of his twin, who was wearing something that could more accurately be called real armor instead of costume the real Papyrus wore, “NYEHHEH! I KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU, THE OTHER ME, SO NICE, SO FRIENDLY, ALWAYS WANTING TO HANG OUT, MAN, COULD YOU BE ANY MORE STUPID?!” The phantom called out as he threw a wave of bones out, the main Papyrus just hopped over them.  
  
“AW, YOU'RE JUST SAYING THAT BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FRIENDS, IT'S OKAY, I'LL BE YOUR FRIEND IF YOU WANT ME TO, I'M ALREADY GREAT FRIENDS WITH MYSELF IN AT LEAST ONE OTHER TIMELINE!” Papyrus responded, his shadow made an annoyed sound before sending a huge wave of bones at him, Papyrus just fluttered through the air like gravity was a suggestion and dodged them all.  
  
Sans stood in front of his copy, “dang, your bro's pretty cool too.” The shadow said, giving a wink with his right eye, “it sucks you know, i have that time machine too, it's pretty crap to watch a timeline happen knowing it's just going to end because it's not the real one.”  The shadow gave a shrug, “really, i don't even want to try, but this is our only chance to make our timeline the real one.”  
  
The real Sans returned with a similar shrug, “yeah, i'm actually empathizing with you here, really am, you sure you don't just want to do a war of words, i got a few good puns that'll really break your funny-bones.” Both Sans' laughed at the joke, “well, guess we gotta get this over with.” At that, both of them activated their blue magic by flashing their left eyes and raising their hands, the gravity around them going so insane they both shot up into the air like they were flying.  
  
Ralochs stared at his copy, “You didn't lose your arm.” He said, noticing the other him still had the option of being ambidextrous as he lit up a fire.  
  
“Unlike you, I don't hesitate to do what my brother wishes, he says kill, I kill, no questions, that little brat never stood a chance.” The shadow of the scholar said with a demented grin as he slammed his hands into the earth, causing a gout of flame to erupt from the ground and making Ralochs go flying with a scream.  
  
Outside of the paradox, Frisk and Asriel sat there with a worried look on their face, “Other selves? I hope they'll be alright then.” Asriel said after Frisk explained the situation, he wanted to go charging in, but he'd be a liability and he knew that, all he could do was push away his fear and wait, and hope.  
  
Asgore's phantom had closed the distance between him and the real one and was swinging that trident like a madman, the weapon changing between trident, halberd and scythe as its wielder wished to try to catch his opponent off, “You can't hold onto the crown being a weakling, how did you even come close to holding your position?!” He said as Asgore dodged each strike deftly despite his size and width, even when attacks struck him, he didn't seem very affected by it.  
  
“I hold onto my crown because the people need a strong king who listens, who protects, I do not know what kind of world yours is, but it's not mine.” Asgore said, refusing to fight back and opting to just dodge over and over again.  
  
The two Toriels were throwing fireball after fireball at one another, every time they would be canceled out by another well placed fireball, “This is going to remain a stalemate, perhaps you should just run away.” The real one called out, that enraged her doppelganger, causing the fireballs to grow much more intense and bear down on the real one.  
  
“Hmph! Do not act like I cannot fight, you of all people know what I am capable of!” The shadow said as the fireballs became even larger, to the point where she may have been throwing boulders. Toriel's eyes widened as she quickly dodged to the side to avoid what would have been a fatal attack.  
  
Undyne was giving her shadow a sporting chance despite the fact that her other self was brutal, pragmatic, and had no sense of showmanship. She kept throwing out easily blocked blitzes that ramped up in difficulty, “Come on! This isn't a good fight yet.” She called out, her shadow just sneered at that.  
  
“Good fight?! We're trying to kill each other! So stop making it fair!” The shadow roared, summoning a massive, unavoidable wall of spears that rammed Undyne against the wall.  
  
Undyne slammed into the wall and looked up, still smiling, “You know why I can make it fair and still win? Because I'm a hero, I have my friends with me, I feel their hearts beating, while you? You're just a killer, I bet you don't have a single friend, do you?” She laughed at that as she stood and summoned another barrage of spears that her increasingly furious doppelganger blocked with ease.  
  
Papyrus was easily dancing around his shadow's attacks, literally dancing around them, “OH, THIS BRINGS BACK SO MANY GOOD MEMORIES OF MY TRAINING... WAIT, DO I HAVE MEMORIES OF MY TRAINING, WHO TAUGHT ME TO FIGHT ANYWAY?” He asked, then put a hand to his chin in thought, he was completely distracted and still dodging the attacks like they were nothing.  
  
“PAY ATTENTION YOU OVERLY-OBLIVIOUS OAF, AND FOCUS ON THE FREAKING FIGHT!” The shadow Papyrus was completely incensed, sending wave after wave of brutal bone attacks towards the real him, increasing the frequency more and more with sheer rage at his real self's lack of any kind of care.  
  
The two Sanses (Sansi?) were floating in thin air over the throne room, both of their eyes glowing, “did you have any idea this was a thing we could do?” The real Sans asked, looking down, then back up, his shadow just shrugged at him, “right.” Sans said as he raised his arm and dropped the gravity on his shadow. The other Sans went crashing, but stopped just short of the ground and produced a Gaster Blaster, it pointed towards the real Sans and unleashed a massive beam towards him. When it faded, Sans was nowhere in sight.  
  
“this is freakin' weird, ain't it?” The shadow asked the real Sans, who was standing on the ground right besides him and just nodded in response, “pretty cool, but freakin' weird.” The shadow added as he activated his gravity magic and sent them both flying into the air again.  
  
Ralochs was running laps around the throne room while the others fought, dodging fireballs recklessly thrown at him by his doppelganger, “Come on! How can you help your Asgore by running away?! It's no wonder you lost your arm, you damn idiot!” The shadow called out as it came to a stop and sent a wall of fire.  
  
“I help him by being a good brother, the kind of person he needs, instead of a toxic voice in his ear like I imagine you are!” Ral went into a slide, dragging his claws through the dirt and, after a short delay, causing it to explode into a wall of fire that canceled out the one chasing him. He took a quick sigh of relief before his shadow continued the pursuit.  
  
Frisk and Asriel continued staring at the door, “They'll be alright, they're all strong, just believe in them.” Frisk said, trying to calm his worried brother, the paradox hadn't been rooted, so while they were fighting over the course of minutes, an hour had already passed in the real world.  
  
Asgore's shadow wasn't giving up, “Stop dodging!” He roared, then calmed down and smirked, “You know, I have enough determination to remember ripples, the last time you came in here, there was a human with you.” The shadow gave a disgustingly smug grin, “My wife went for it, and yours took the attack, she turned to dust!” Asgore's faced tensed at that as he stopped moving, “After I finish you off and take over your timeline, I'll go kill that child too!”  
  
Asgore took a quick step, far away, then put his head down so his eyes were hidden in shadow, “Do not threaten my family.” He threw his cape aside and thrust his trident at the empty air between the two of them with massive force.  
  
Before the impostor could even move, the air rushed past him and caused him to freeze cold, “What...?” He looked behind him to see that, just by stabbing at the air in front of him, Asgore had pierced a massive gash in the wall of the throne room. The false Asgore looked forward and saw his own trident split in half, then down, to see the same wound on his body, he had been felled in a single blow once Asgore was pushed enough to fight back. “So... that is the strength of a real king.” The shadow said in disbelief as it faded into nothingness.  
  
The false Toriel looked over towards what just happened in shock, “What?! How?!” She took a massive fireball into her hand and threw it at a king, only for it to be blocked by one of Toriel's.  
  
“Tell me, do you remember what love is?” Toriel said as she stepped in front of her shadow, a somber smile on her face, “The ability to do anything to save those important to you? That was that power, and... so is this.” Toriel took in a deep breath as she summoned a single fireball, she threw it at the fake queen.  
  
The impostor growled in fury as she tried to cancel out the fireball with one of her own, only for it to be absorbed, the shadow clenched her teeth and started sending more fireballs, but by the time she realized none of them worked, it was too late, the spell had become massive. Toriel turned her head away as the shadow was incinerated, and faded into nothingness.  
  
Undyne was on the ropes, her shadow hadn't given her any chances and had battered and skewered her over and over again, “Why aren't you dead yet?!” The shadow screamed as she threw more spears into Undyne's form. Undyne didn't relent though, just kept smiling, “Don't dare say this is because of friends! Look at how far I got without them, and look where you are!” The shadow roared.  
  
Undyne looked up, teeth showing in a grin, “Where I am? It's pretty much exactly where I want to be... a hero, down and out, so close to death.” She coughed, then pounded her fist into the ground hard enough to crack it, “And I'm going to say it anyway because it's true, I am where I am because of my friends, because I can hear the heartbeat of those who care about me! And even though she's not here in person, I can feel Alphys' heart beating the loudest!” Undyne screamed as she reached into her phone's box and grabbed the hilt of her new weapon.  
  
The impostor readied her spear to block it, but wasn't expecting such a massive weapon, Undyne gave one massive grin as she swung the sword nearly half the length of the room, splitting the impostor's spear, and then the impostor herself, “That strike was all you, Alphys!” Undyne screamed as she pointed towards the dissipating copy.  
  
Papyrus was still dancing around faker's attack, though he was visibly sweating and actually paying attention, “WOWIE, IT FEEL LIKE UNDYNE'S WORK-OUT ROUTINES!” He cried, the fake Papyrus just laughed.  
  
“AH-HAH, COME ON, JUST GIVE UP, YOU AREN'T GOING TO OUTLAST ME, I'M TOO GREAT!” The shadow taunted.  
  
Sans and his copy were just floating in the air, staring each other down with their blasters occasionally exchanging fire, “so, since we can both look forward, that means we both know how this ends, right?” Sans said, the shadow gave an audible sigh.  
  
“yeah, pretty awful thing to do, but i know i can't do anything to change it, do you what you gotta.” The shadow said, defeated.  
  
Before anyone could register, the real Sans and Papyrus had swapped places, “OH, HELLO OTHER SANS... OHMYGOD, ARE WE FLYING?” Papyrus exclaimed, the shadow just winked.  
  
“yep, four gravity magics make for some weird stuff, not-bro.” The shadow said as the two slowly started to lower.  
  
Sans had swapped who they were fighting, despite being the worst of them, the fake Papyrus just couldn't bring himself to strike down any version of brother, even if he was supposed to be an enemy, “TH-THIS ISN'T FAIR, GIVE ME THE IDIOT BACK!” The shadow protested. Sans shook his head and walked towards him.  
  
“don't worry about it, other bro, and just gimme a hug.” Sans said, the shadow Papyrus blinked for a second, then responded by stepping closer, “'m sorry.” Sans said as the gravity magic sealed the shadow Papyrus in an inescapable box, he dispersed shortly after, “i'm gonna have nightmares for months about that one.” Sans said bitterly. The phantom Sans landed with Papyrus, looked at where his world's brother went, and walked off in silence.  
  
Ralochs was the last one to deal with his phantom, “You can't run away forever!” The shadow exclaimed, Ral seemed to want to put that statement to the test as he kept dodging and running, not caring about the taunts being thrown out, eventually he was put up to a wall with fire on either side of him, “Hah!” The shadow cackled, “Try getting out of this one!” He started walking towards him, hands alight with magic, when he noticed Ral smiling.  
  
“Sorry, you lose.” He said, causing the shadow to grimace, “I'm glad you're not me, arrogant, smug, and can't even tell when he's run into a trap... behind you!” The shadow quickly turned around to look... only to see nothing.  
  
“Heh, nice bluff, but-” Before he could finish his sentence, he felt a jolt run through him, he looked down to see a superheated clawed hand piercing through his chest. Ralochs had just played a dirty trick to cinch his victory.  
  
“Double diversion, sorry for playing dirty but... I'm just a scholar, not a fighter.” He said as the shadow dispersed.  
  
Outside of the paradox, an hour and a half had passed, Asriel just grew more and more worried, “It's been a long time, Frisk... I... I... I'm going in after them!” Before Frisk could protest, or try to stop him, he ran into the paradox.  
  
“O-oh my.” Asgore said as he put his hands on his knees and started panting, “That was awful, is everyone okay?” He said, looking over.  
  
“As good as can be expected, for what just happened.” Toriel said with a small frown, “That was awful, is that really what we could have become in another world?”  
  
“I would say don't let it get to you, Lady Toriel.” Ralochs said as he walked up, blowing out the fireballs hanging just over his hand that he used to heat his claws up to lethal degrees.  
  
“I GOT TO FLY! THAT WAS AMAZING!” Papyrus exclaimed.  
  
“Heh! Just like in the anime!” Undyne laughed with a huge smile, despite being the most wounded of the group by far.  
  
“alright, now to just break dad's legs free and- ah crap.” Sans said as he looked forward, the shadows were starting to reform already, and quickly at that, “welp.”  
  
The shadow of Asgore reformed and looked at the group, he was looking melted, “I... will not let you end this timeline... I have determination, the power to defy death... you will not win.” He said, holding onto his melting form.  
  
“Dad!” Asriel cried as he ran into paradox, Asgore looked back, horrified, his shadow smiled.  
  
“Ah, here comes the human child to-” The shadow's eyes widened, “Asriel?!” He watched in disbelief as Asriel ran into the real Asgore's arms, “How!?” He asked, still wide-eyed.  
  
“The Human brought him back to us.” Toriel said, looking over the shadow, who proceeded to drop his broken weapon on the ground.  
  
“That timeline... he's alive?” The fake Asgore seemed to be having trouble comprehending this, he just stood there for a second, staring forward. Eventually, the fake Toriel came back, her reaction was identical.  
  
Seconds passed in silence before the shadow of Asgore smiled, “So... that is why your timeline won out, so be it.” He looked up, “Take care of him, do what we could not.” With that, he spun around and smashed the glass keeping Gaster's pieces captured, they vanished into the ether to return to their owner, and the world around them swirled as the paradox ended.  
  
Everyone left the paradox, Asriel in Asgore's arms, “Even though they couldn't possess a SOUL like us, even though they were supposed to be emotionless, they still loved him enough to move on, for his sake.” Asgore said with a sympathetic look at the smiling child in his arms.  
  
Frisk stood up and ran over to where they were, counting their blessings everyone was okay, well, mostly okay, Undyne looked like crap, but she was smiling.  
  
They headed back to the Snowed Inn, it would be the first time they had stayed at the same location twice, but everyone needed it, even those of them who weren't injured had used a lot of energy on magic, and needed to restore it.  
  
“It's strange, and awful, to think that we were one moment of acceptance away from ending up in that timeline.” Ralochs said as he slurped up some noodles, “All we'd have to have done was be a little more openly malicious about what happened on that day years ago, and the world would have made us such.”  
  
“But we were not, and we are not.” Toriel added as she looked out the frosted over windows, “We are here, as the people we are.”  
  
Everyone glanced over for Undyne's input, but she had already stuffed her meal away and fallen asleep to heal off her wounds from the battle, “She fought well today.” Ralochs said, “Exactly what I'd expect from Asgore's understudy.” He looked up to Asgore, who reached back and scratched his head, blushing a bit.  
  
“I STILL WONDER WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OTHER ME.” Papyrus said, “I JUST SAW THE OTHER SANS LEAVE, THE OTHER ME WAS ALREADY GONE.” Everyone cringed slightly at that, nobody really had the heart to tell him. Least of all Sans, who was acting about as distant as you'd expect from someone who just killed a shadow of the most important person in his world.  
  
Frisk was off talking to him, clearly trying to pick his spirits up, but they were too far away for their conversation to be overheard.  
  
“They could have gone at us for a long time if they were calling on determination, really we owe our victory to Asriel.” Asgore said, looking to his son who was happily eating away on spaghetti. His ears noticeably perked up at that, he just looked to everyone with a smile, a noodle still hanging halfway out of his mouth.  
  
Everyone eventually fell asleep, ready for their adventure to lead them through the rest of Snowdin, their next destination were the Ruins, formerly known as Home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! Thoughts on this chapter
> 
> This was a really hard one to write and make sure it made sense, I read it over and over again to make sure it was clear who was doing what action during the fight, hopefully I kept things nice and understandable for the people reading, if not I'll go and change some stuff around.
> 
> And while it's implied what AU I dipped into for this chapter (not subtly at all, either), I'm not going to outright namedrop it because the actual AU is a bit more... NSFW than this fic's overall direction, and while I don't exactly shrug off graphically writing violence, I'm trying to keep this fic's rating a consistent T.


	8. Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not going to link any music recommendations this time, but if you really want your emotions shredded to bits, put on the main theme when they reach Home... just... trust me.

“Hey!” Undyne called out to the figure standing in front of the cliffside that dumped off into the darkness, “You alright?” The figure nearly jumped out of its skin and backed away, then looked towards the direction Undyne was calling from. Undeterred, she walked forward.  
  
“Hey there, what are you doing?” Undyne said, kneeling down to take a look at the monster, they were pretty short, yellow and sorta lizard-like, they were also wearing glasses and a white lab-coat, the monster just started stuttering nervously.  
  
“O-oh uhm, n-nothing, just er... staring?” The monster said in an unmistakably female voice, “I'm just, erm... feeling like garbage.” She said hesitantly, staring downcast at the ground.  
  
Undyne stared at the girl for a second, frowning, before she put a big smile on her face, “Hey, awesome! Mind if I sit here and feel like garbage too?” She called out, startling the nervous lizard sitting in front of her.  
  
“O-oh! I mean... no, you don't have to if you don't want to, I mean...” Undyne just picked her up, walked over to a dry spot, and dropped her down, then sat down next to her.  
  
“Hey, it's alright, I like coming down here too, you can find some pretty neat stuff in this junk!” She added, “So, uh, hey! What's your name? Mine's Undyne!” She said, giving a large, toothy grin, the other monster swallowed a bit, tapping her claws together.  
  
“I'm uh... Alphys, the r-royal scientist.” She suddenly became very crestfallen at just saying her title, but Undyne didn't bother with that.  
  
“Oh! I get it, you're a nerd!” Undyne said, laughing and making Alphys cringe, “Hey! Doesn't matter to me, you guys got some pretty interesting stuff going on for you, I've seen these books from humans wash down here about how scientists can make lasers, and crazy robots and stuff.” At that, Alphys' head immediately raised.  
  
“O-oh my gosh, yes! Th-those are manga! I uh, actually, I have some anime at home?” She said, smiling nervously, Undyne just stared at her, “Err, sorry.”  
  
“What's... anime?” Undyne said, looking quizzically at the scientist.  
  
“Oh my gosh!” Alphys exclaimed, “W-well uhm, it's like cartoons, but with... with sword's, it's uhm, a written story of human history?” She noticed Undyne staring at her strangely and started sweating, eventually she put on the biggest smile ever.  
  
“Wait! You mean those books aren't just fantasy!? Anime is real?!” She said, standing up and crouching over, looking desperate for the smaller monster's response. Alphys just nervously nodded her head, and Undyne's response was to start laughing in excitement so loud the cavern shook and stray rocks came loose from ceiling, “Awesome! You have got to show me!” She exclaimed.  
  
Undyne woke up, staring around at the pile everyone had settled into, she just gave a sigh, “Just a few more day, Alphys.” She said happily as she dozed off again, into a dream of a more recent day.  
  
“Hey, what are you working on?” Undyne asked as she watched Alphys tinker on a metallic box from her bed, “More science stuff?” She asked, trying to peer over the girl's shoulder from the distance to see what exactly she was doing.  
  
Alphys nodded, “Yeah, I'm trying to rig up a device that'll let our phones work even when they shouldn't have a signal, that way everyone can talk to one another no matter how far apart we are.” She seemed excited, and confident in her ability to get this working.  
  
“Atta girl!” Undyne said, excited, “Uhm, hey, Alphys?” She asked, suddenly looking thoughtful, Alphys looked over towards her questioningly, “Oh, uh, nothing, keep at it! I'm gonna go get some tea.” She said, standing up and quickly leaving the room.  
  
“Come on Undyne! What is wrong with you?!” She grunted in frustration as she stomped around the living room, “I mean! It's only the most important question you can ever ask someone, no big deal, right?!” She said, looking at the small black box on the table in front of her, she stared it, getting angrier and angrier before sighing, “No! Come on, after everything else this is what gets through my nerves of steel?! Get real! I just need to... think of how to word it?” She grabbed the box and walked over towards the counter, “I mean, we've already been living together for two years, and we're... RRRRRRRGH!” She grunted in frustration.  
  
“Undyne, i-is everything okay?” Alphys called out from the next room over, Undyne sighed as she slipped the box into a hidden counter, then went to take out the teapot.  
  
“Yeah! Just fine!” She responded, staring at the counter in fury, she was going to make Alphys that tea so hard it would be a miracle if the house survived the night.  
  
Undyne just kept dreaming, eventually she and Alphys mellowed out from their stuff and went in for a kiss... and that's when Undyne woke up and saw she was staring Ralochs right in the face, even though he was still dead asleep.

* * *

  
  
“NGAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Her sudden screaming made everyone else jump awake, Undyne had Ralochs by the arm and was spinning the confused, screaming boss monsters through the air, “What the heck were you doing being Alphys in my dream?!” She all but screamed.  
  
Papyrus immediately hit the floor, “OH NO! SHE HAD ANOTHER ALPHYS KISSY DREAM, EVERYONE HIT THE DECK!” Everyone, without thinking, suddenly dropped to the floor as Undyne let go of Ral, sending him flying through the far wall, through the wall to the next room over, and the shop besides that, and finally outside  where he landed on the Welcome to Snowdin sign.  
  
Ralochs just gave two weak coughs as he looked at the splinters surrounded him, “Wh-h-hyyyyyy.” He whined as he slipped forward off the sign and face-first into the soft cushion of snow beneath him, more than a little confused and injured.  
  
Undyne just blinked, realizing what she just did, “Whoops.”  
  
“Well, that was a rather unexpected wake-up call.” Toriel said as she healed the still sore and splinter-filled Boss Monster.  
  
“Seriously, one second I'm dreaming and the next thing I know Undyne's practicing her wrestling moves on me.” Ral said, glaring at her, she seemed penitent, but she was also still laughing about it, “Ow!” He yelled as Toriel pulled a splinter out of his back.  
  
“Oh, do not act so sensitive, you are more than durable enough to handle something like that.” She said as she pulled another, larger splinter out, eliciting a muffled scream.  
  
“Yeah! It's a good thing even the wimpy Boss Monsters are so freakin' tough, you're full of splinters but you still sprung up like it was nothing!” Undyne added, laughing.  
  
“IT'S OKAY, RAL, SHE'S DONE IT TO ME BEFORE TOO.” Papyrus added, patting Undyne on the shoulder and getting a glare from her that caused him to back off with a squeak.  
  
“Well, at least we got something good out of it.” Asgore said as he came in through the hole in the wall, “Look everyone! I found some left behind hot chocolate in the store.” He said with a smile as he held the packets up.  
  
“Yay! Hot chocolate!” Asriel cheered.  
  
“heh, at least there's that.” Sans said with a chuckle as he walked towards a shortcut, “lemme go to waterfall and get some water and we'll boil that stuff up, thinking some hot chocolate would be nice now that there's a massive hole in the wall, ain't exactly keeping the warmth in.” He added as he vanished.  
  
Sans returned with some water and everyone got some hot chocolate ready for the moment and for later, it wasn't exactly a long walk from Home, but Snowdin was a place one had to take their time going through, a bad ice patch could spell disaster, so something to keep everyone warm on their slow walk was more than welcome.  
  
As everyone finished getting ready, they set out, passing by the path that led to the paradox and off towards the rest of Snowdin, everyone but Frisk and Papyrus seemed more than a little shocked when they hit the ice slick that carried them over to Papyrus' old switch puzzle.  
  
“Hey, why are all of you guys cringing so much every time we go over ice?” Undyne said, looking to Toriel, Asgore and Ral, Asriel and Frisk were sitting on Asgore's shoulderpads, like miniature seats.  
  
Ralochs just lifted his foot, “Paw pads and ice don't mix, at all.” He said as he cringed again, “And then you immediately step into this cold snow, that just makes it worse.” He muttered as they group came to the old switch puzzle.  
  
“OH MY GOODNESS, IT STILL WORKS!”  Papyrus said as he ran around the X's and O's ecstatically, switching them in every which way, “I KNEW THAT SUCH AN AMAZING PUZZLE WOULDN'T GET SNOWED AWAY SO EASILY, NYEH HEH HEH!”  
  
“He's having fun.” Frisk said, watching Papyrus run around like a crazy person on the face-shaped puzzle.  
  
“can you blame him? he has a lot of good memories of these.” Sans said with a wink, Frisk shot him a dirty look at that, “oh, right, some jerk messed with the puzzles enough to actually make them lethal, so they weren't quite as much fun for you.” He shrugged as he picked up the pace.  
  
As they walked to the edge of the area they all looked out at the snowy forest, Asriel took notice of something, “So, hey, who's cottage is that?” He said, calling attention to the small cottage down in the middle of the clearing, just in front of a frozen lake with a small fire still going out of its chimney.  
  
“YOU KNOW, THAT'S AN EXCELLENT QUESTION, I FEEL LIKE I SHOULD KNOW IT.” Papyrus added, tapping at his skull like he was trying to remember something.  
  
“That's Cinna's house, the old witch.” Ralochs said with a degree of disdain in his voice.  
  
“Oh, is that where she ended up?” Toriel added, everyone else raised their eyebrows at that.  
  
“Who? Never heard of her.” Undyne squinted her eye to try to get a better look, Ralochs took a big sigh at that one.  
  
“One of the most ill-tempered Boss Monsters I've ever met.” He said, giving a dismissive wave, “I call her a witch because of her personality, not because of her magic or lifestyle.”  
  
“Wait, more Boss Monsters?” Frisk added as they sipped their hot chocolate, looking confused, “I thought you guys were it?”  
  
Asgore shook his head, “We're not very populous, but there are more than just us four, despite being born leaders it's very rare for a Boss Monster to decide they want to be sociable, many of them chose to live in seclusion, in the Underground alone, there were probably forty or fifty.” He looked down, “I vaguely remember Cinna, what was she like again?”  
  
Ralochs gave a harsh breath out of his nose, “Well, let me put it this way, I didn't go out of my way to tell her the barrier broke because I didn't want to try to outrun a glacier, for an ice magic user she has a temper that's hotter than Hotland. Every time I tried to deliver news or information or current events, it would end with me being chased back to Home with ice crystals chasing me.”  
  
“i don't know, she sounds like a pretty cold person to me.” Sans quipped, getting a mix of groans and chuckles.  
  
Ral gave a big shrug, “Shame too, she's pretty freaking hot.” Frisk and Asriel were caught so off-guard at that complete and utter aside note that they turned their head away from the group and sprayed all the hot chocolate they had in their mouth out, then started coughing.  
  
“Ralochs, children!” Toriel scolded, Ralochs immediately went red-faced and walked into the next area ahead of the group.  
  
“So, I'm confused.” Frisk said as they started walking again, “How big is the underground that I didn't ever come across any other Boss Monsters?” They looked around, trying to see other places through the dark of the cave.  
  
Asgore looked thoughtful, “Well, there's a rocky, mountainous type area to the south of here that nobody ever really went to besides fliers, an area farther north of New Home that was like a forest... now that I think on it, your journey actually didn't take you to see the full sights of what the underground was like, you stayed on a relatively narrow path. Even New Home is massive.”  
  
Frisk nodded at that, “Fair enough.” They responded, conceding the point. Now that they thought of about it, there were way more monsters than just what they encountered on their journey, they were all over the place on the surface now, enough to have significant populations in most cultures, their mind idly wandered to what those other places must look like. Perhaps when they were older and more capable, they'd come back here one day and explore those far reaches.  
  
The journey continued until they arrived at the forest, the path to Home was just ahead.  
  
As they approached that old open door, Frisk stood in front of everyone, “Guys.” They said, suddenly looking down again, “We're about to see... another vision.” They said, looking down.  
  
Asriel grimaced at that, “Frisk, what are we about to see?” He said as she slipped down Asgore's cape to start walking alongside them.  
  
Everyone shared an uneasy glance, they knew the pattern, the vision, they had an idea, “That shadow... when mom stood in my way... that presence that controlled me could have killed her in a single hit, easily.” Frisk said, already starting to tear up, “It didn't though, it tortured me, and it did the same to her, it acted like it was going to play out the same solution, not fighting back, I hoped for just a second that maybe it cared about her like I did.”  
  
Toriel walked up to Frisk and knelt down, wrapping them in a hug, “But it didn't.” They said bitterly, “It waited until she dropped her guard, then it made me... no!” They all but screamed, having a full on flashback to that event. “Every time I've thought of the underground, I can't help but think back to that, that was why I sent Asriel at first, what if that presence came back? What if it tried to make me do that again?”  
  
“My child...” Toriel said, only imagining the kind of pain Frisk must have been feeling as she tried to comfort them.  
  
“Frisk...” Asriel took a nervous swallow as he walked up to put a hand on Frisk's shoulder.  
  
“Damn that thing, whatever it was.” Ralochs said as he looked into the empty hallway ahead, “I hope for its sake that it's gone for good, if it ever comes back again I'll destroy it myself.” He said, sounding oddly determined.  
  
“Yeah! We're not going to let it do that to you again, Frisk, you can trust us on that!” Undyne said, teeth clenched in anger at the thought.  
  
“WE'RE HERE TO PROTECT YOU FRISK, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT THING EVER COMING BACK AND DOING THAT AGAIN!” Even Papyrus sounded a bit angry at the thought.  
  
Sans nodded, “that'd be the one thing on this planet that i think would make me actually try.” He winked.  
  
Asgore didn't even say anything, he just nodded twice.  
  
Frisk spent a while calming down before everyone went in, the second the shadows of the event began to play out, rather than let Frisk suffer through it, Toriel summoned up a fireball and dispersed them, “That is enough of that.” She said firmly as they kept walking.  
  
They were at the stairs that led up to the Home area when another shadow came up, it looked like Frisk, except it didn't. Frisk and Asriel both took a soft swallow at that, and after noticing their expressions, Asgore and Toriel also became somber.  
  
“Everyone.” Asgore said, “Please... wait here for us.” He asked, there was the kind of seriousness in his voice that he rarely put on, one that made everyone know they needed to listen and obey without questioning it.  
  
“I'm staying behind too.” Frisk said as they sat down, “This is... something for you guys to do.” He looked up, giving Asriel a pained, sympathetic look.  
  
“You guys go on ahead, we'll keep Frisk company.” Undyne said as she watched them leave, the frown on her face was evident, “Frisk, what are they about to see up there?” She asked, only to notice Frisk crying.  
  
They shook their head, trying to control their tears, they could only manage to choke out two words, “The truth.”  
  
As the three walked upstairs, they watched the shadows scamper about, various events showing more or less at once, “These bygone days... I still miss them.” Asgore said as he watched a shadow of the human child disappear down the hallway, “Chara always had an odd disposition, but they were still our child.” He said, a small smile on his face as he took a deep inward breath, trying to not cry.  
  
“I still remember the smile on their face as they played with you, you two were always so happy together.” Toriel added, reminiscence clear in their eyes. Asriel couldn't control it any longer, he burst into tears and ran into the old bedroom, they both followed him.  
  
“Oh no... not this day.” Asgore said, knowing well what they shadows were showing them, Toriel was silently sobbing at just seeing it. Chara, laying in their bed with a weak smile, surrounded by their worried family.  
  
“The day of that terrible accident, and what followed.” Toriel said weakly as they watched events play out, Asriel walked up to the bed and collapsed at the foot, not disrupting the vision. Years never dulled that pain and it was clear on all of their faces... the way their expressions contorted and the two fell into each others arms crying when Chara's hand went limp in Asgore's palm, they just couldn't handle the sight.  
  
And then.  
  
The shadows of Toriel and Asgore faded as Asriel was left alone, the shadow was trying so hard to not cry as they raised their hands up to take Chara's SOUL, but given the nature of the visions there wasn't any actual SOUL, but the others knew well what it meant. The memory of Asriel stood there for a second, pain clear on their face as they grabbed Chara's body and left the room.  
  
“I knew that we would see it again, but...” Toriel said, crying, “I did not wish to. Asriel, you took them to see their home, and that is when you... you.” She couldn't find the words.  
  
“This tragic accident that changed all of our lives forever... I just wish it didn't happen.” Asgore said, trying to find his inner strength.  
  
Asriel couldn't stop crying, no matter how hard he tried the tears wouldn't stop coming, but they had to know, he had to tell them “Chara... they.” He hiccuped, choking on his words, “They...” He couldn't do it, “Because...” no, he had to.  
  
“It wasn't an accident!”  
  
The parent's faces froze at that, a few seconds later and they both slumped to the floor, Asriel turned around and ran into their arms, “I'm so sorry! We just wanted to help everyone be free!” He cried, “Chara... they said they didn't want to keep going, but they wanted to free us, so they... they... they ate the buttercups on purpose!” He all but screamed, there was a sensation of numb shock on the king and queen's faces.  
  
“They wanted to give me a human SOUL, so that I could get six more and free us.” He said, he wasn't calming down, but now that the worst part was out, he didn't feel like he couldn't keep speaking, “They chose to die because they wanted us to go free... but I couldn't do it.” Asriel said, “I couldn't kill anyone, I didn't want to hurt anyone.” He said burying his face in his mother's robes as she hugged him. “I'm so sorry! Everything that went wrong, losing me, the human SOULs, all the people, human and monster that died since that day, it was all our fault!” He cried.  
  
“Asriel...” The parents said as their tears started anew.  
  
What words could be shared? None. They sat there crying their eyes out for what may as well have been hours. Asriel finally came out with the whole truth, how Chara hated humanity, how the plan was their idea and Asriel went along with it, and even how they were the one who tried to strike back, but Asriel wouldn't let them.  
  
“You... you probably hate us now, don't you?” Asriel whimpered.  
  
“No.” Asgore said as he held his son, “I do not.”  
  
“And I do not hate Chara either.”  
  
Those words caused Asriel's eyes to open wide in shock and his tears began anew, “They made a wrong choice, one that haunted so many people, it was an awful thing to do, and to drag you into it...” He said, starting to cry again, “And even if they didn't have the greatest love of humanity, the way you two played, the way you two talked to each other and to us. I know that... they at least did it out of their love for us... and that is why... that is why we...” His words were caught in his throat.  
  
Toriel spoke up, continuing Asgore's sentence with words that made Asriel's heart skip, “But they were still our child, every bit as much as you are, and we still loved them all the same.... that is why we forgive them.” She said quietly, making her, _their_ , forgiveness towards their adopted child's last decision known.  
  
“Mom... dad.” Asriel cried, “Thank you! Thank you so much!” He yelled as he tightened his grip in the hug they had made.  
  
Minutes passed in silence soon turned into an hour, none of them wanted to move from this spot, none of them could even find it to move from that spot.  
  
Eventually, they stood up and went downstairs, waving to everyone that it was okay to follow. Asriel could note that Frisk and Ralochs were both crying every bit as hard as they were, it was easy for him to guess they snuck up to eavesdrop.  
  
“Hey...you guys alright?” Undyne said, taking notice of the damp and sunken fur around their eyes, “I mean... nah, you don't gotta tell me.” She said with a small smile.  
  
“RALOCHS JUST TOLD ME IT WAS SOMETHING YOU'D HAVE TO FACE YOURSELVES, I WAS THINKING SOMETHING WOULD ATTACK YOU, AND YOU'RE ALL CRYING, ARE YOU OKAY?!” Papyrus said, distressed, Asriel just smiled in return, making Papyrus smile.  
  
“Yes, we are... we are all okay, but... if it is okay with you, can we stop here for the night?” Toriel said, looking at everyone.  
  
“no complaints from me, being perfectly honest, you three look like you need it.” Sans said as he looked around.  
  
“Good, we can use the area upstairs then.” Asgore said as he beckoned for everyone to come up, “But... please do not go down the hallway to the bedrooms, please.” He said somberly, everyone nodded.  
  
Another night had come as everyone ate what they had, Papyrus' bag of spaghetti was finally looking about the size of a normal backpack filled to the bursting point with food.

* * *

  
  
As everyone eventually fell asleep in different corners of the old dining room, Toriel and Asgore went outside, they went beyond the old tree and took a left, to the balcony overlooking the rest of the Ruins.  
  
“I always had suspicions, you know.” Toriel said as she sat down to look out of the aged and crumbling city, “They were too smart, and too fond of them, to not know that buttercups were toxic.” She shook her head, “But... that they would go so far, and do such a thing.”  
  
Asgore sat down besides her, bringing her in close for an embrace, “But it is not for us to hold against them, it was the wrong decision, but it was done for us, for Asriel and all of monster-kind... I just wish that they were still here, so that we could tell them we forgive them for it, perhaps it would grant them some measure of closure.” He said, shaking his head.  
  
“Dear.” Toriel said, resting her head on his chest, “Tomorrow morning, before the others awake... I will take you to... to see them, then... we can tell them, okay?” She said, ignoring the tears running down her face.  
  
“That... that sounds like a lovely idea, Honey.” Asgore choked out as the two sat there, staring out into the Ruins.  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I... man, what can I say about this one?
> 
> Consider the opening my apology for not having Alphys be more involved in the story, I just couldn't think of how I could get her to fit into the story with the flow it's followed.
> 
> I made the first half more comical and lighthearted than a lot of the rest of the fic because I feel like being sandwiched between the last chapter, the end of this one, and especially with what I have planned for the next one, I really needed things to become lighter for a bit.
> 
> Also, more Headcanon regarding Boss Monsters and the underground as a whole.
> 
> God, what can I even say about what happens in Home proper? I put all my emotions out there and set the main theme to loop and just wrote what I felt, I even had to stop at one point because I made myself cry too hard to see what I was typing, I try to be humble, but I honestly don't know if I can ever top the way I handled the Royal Family learning the whole truth about Chara.
> 
> Well, almost the whole truth.


	9. Megalo-again-ia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once more unto the breach.
> 
> Heavy, heavy suicide trigger warnings, Chara's is discussed at length with the "not saying the word outright" type of discussion, in my experience that can be worse than it being said.

The next morning had come early for the two monsters as they walked down the lonely pathways through the ruins, the traps still undone from when Frisk went through, each step softly echoing down the halls. They didn't share words, they couldn't think of any to say, Toriel, knowing now the sins her child committed, and Asgore, seeing their final resting place for the first time.  
  
As they arrived in that room, they saw water from a storm that must have blown in from the surface, it was leaking in from the pitfall above and down below, watering the golden flowers, which still survived strongly even two years later. Toriel took a small inward breath, “There they are.” She said lowly as she hung back to let him say what he needed to.  
  
“Howdy, Chara...” Asgore said with a small smile as he sat down in front of the grave, it quickly inverted itself into a frown, “It's been... a while since we've talked, hasn't it?” He reached up to put his hand to his chest, “Ever since that day, I've missed hearing your voice and seeing that smile, when Tori left, she took you with her, to let you be where you deserved, among these flowers that you loved.” He shook his head, tears already starting to fall.  
  
“Asriel... told us what happened, the truth of it.” He continued, choking on his words a bit, “I... it was... not easy to hear, that you had done it on purpose, that you had chosen to leave this world because you wanted to free us, or just because you were so tired of it that you did not wish to go on... I just wish that... you would have spoken to us, maybe we could have helped you.” It was clear he was holding at least some of the blame on himself, “Tori's always been my mind, and my sense, perhaps if I was more perceptive, I could have stopped you two... I am sorry. And I am sorry that, in my anger, I did something horrible, that took so many to an awful place.”  
  
“But...I do not hate you, _we_ , do not hate you, Chara.” He emphasized, “It is easy to be angry at you for taking Asriel from us, even though he has since returned, it is easy to want to blame your plan and the fallout of it for all the horrible things that happened in the underground, but I will not. We can't let mistakes like these haunt us forever, and it's unfair to do the same to others because you think they wronged you.”  
  
He shook his head, “I still remember those days, watching you two run through the house, causing trouble around the city. Telling stories over tea, enjoying your mother's butterscotch pie, you were... you are... still our child.” He looked out at the flowers that were soaking from the water dripping in from above, “Chara, I forgive you, and I love you, if you can hear me, just know that. We still love you.” He huddled down, trying to keep his composure and failing.  
  
“I know that they can hear you, dearest.” Toriel said softly as she walked up and put a hand on her husband's shoulder, “I don't regret staying here all those years, looking after this grave even after learning the truth, like he said, you are still our child.” She said, smiling fondly over at the flowers.  
  
“And, even though your plan hurt him the most.” Toriel said, “Asriel misses you, Chara.” She gave a soft sigh, “I know you may be jealous of Frisk, but just know that they didn't replace you, they aren't you and they never will be. They are our child, and we love them just the same, but they are not your replacement, nobody in the world could ever replace someone who was so important to us.” She said as she sat down next to Asgore.  
  
The two sat there, speaking to the grave as though Chara was there to listen, about their life above, everyone's happiness. But the one thing they always emphasized, even though they never outright said it, was how much they wish they were still here, so that they could experience it too, living life alongside Frisk and Asriel, three children living happily above the surface.  
  
“We... we should be heading back, the others are sure to be awake by now.” Toriel said, “Chara, my dear child, we will come back every few years to check up on you, does that... sound okay?” Toriel said as she regained her composure.  
  
“I think that sounds lovely.” Asgore said as he stood, then reached down to help his wife up, “See you soon, Chara.” He said as they turned to leave, giving one last glance to the grave. He could have sworn that, for just a split second, he saw Chara standing there, eyes closed and smiling. He just shook it off as they departed, believing the rain from above and his emotions made him see something that wasn't there.

* * *

  
  
“WELL?” Papyrus said as the others sat there, watching two snails race each other across the dining room, “COME ON, YOU CAN DO IT, I BELIEVE IN YOU, DON'T LET THE OTHER SNAIL WIN!” He called, the snail eventually turned upside down, retreated into its shell, and then lit on fire, “WHOOPS!”  
  
“Poor thing buckled under the pressure.” Ralochs said, chuckling, “Though, as far as failing goes, that was rather spectacular to watch.” He added as he watched Asgore and Toriel re-enter the house, “Oh, welcome back, you two.” He said, they just nodded in return.  
  
“Mom! Dad!” Asriel called as him and Frisk ran up with a smile, “We were wondering where you had gone to, we've been racing snails while you were gone, Sans has already won ten dollars off Papyrus and Undyne.” He said, bringing a smile to their faces.  
  
“NGAAAH! He's cheating, I swear!” Undyne said as she watched Sans' snail win again, “You probably know which one's faster because you're lazy enough to be a snail, Sans!” She sneered at the skeleton, who just gave a large shrug.  
  
“what can i say, lazy creatures think alike, that is, we think _slug_ gishly.” Frisk and Ral facepalmed, Papyrus all but screamed and Undyne gave a grunt and stormed out of the house while Asgore had to spend the next few minutes calming Toriel and Asriel down from their laughing fit.  
  
“Well, since we're all back together, perhaps it's time we continue?” Asgore said after everything had settled down, everyone nodded, then turned to Sans for his input, he took in a deep breath.  
  
“after the last one, he just said “watch your step”, not sure what he was meaning there.” He said, trying to process it.  
  
“I bet I know.” Frisk said, looking into the ruins, everyone turned their attention to them, “Some of the puzzles around here involved pitfalls, it sounds like it's at the bottom of one.” They added, everyone shared glances before nodding and heading out.  
  
The path wasn't very hard to follow, or interesting to note, and not a lot was said. Despite staying mostly positive, this journey had stretched from an anticipated day to over a week, they were all beginning to show their fatigue and desire to be done with everything and head home, so they were all thankful when they quickly found the door in one of the holes of that room with six drops in it. Undyne destroyed the door and they all went inside.  
  
Gaster began to speak again, a voice could most certainly be heard through the static now, but it was still too much to be clear, “dang, here i was hoping i'd catch a break and he could speak clearly again, oh well, here goes.” Sans said as he looked around the black void of the paradox.  
  
As Gaster spoke, Sans grimaced and turned, “he's asking if frisk has told us everything about their journey, what are you leaving out?” He asked as the world around them shifted to the first room in the ruins, that room with the flowers, Frisk suddenly tensed up massively as three shadows started forming.  
  
“I...” Frisk said, then took in a deep breath, Gaster wasn't going to drop this on them and Frisk was thankful for that, he was keeping the shadows from manifesting until Frisk explained, “Chara... came back to life.” Everyone in the room startled at that, a mix of gasps and confused expressions.  
  
“Came back to... what do you mean, Frisk?” Asgore said, looking at Frisk and expecting an answer. Frisk nodded twice before taking in a breath and speaking.  
  
“I think it might have been because I landed in Chara's grave, so I resonated with them somehow, but they had been with me throughout the entire journey, their memories were what let me save Asriel... but also... when I eventually fell into that haze in that other timeline... it was Chara that took control of my body.” They took in a sigh but showed no tears, their friends' acceptance had them so filled with determination they no longer let that haunt them.  
  
Toriel and Asgore looked very distressed at that as Frisk continued speaking, “But... then at the end of it all, they freed me, when that presence that was controlling me like a puppet made itself known, Chara was furious, I think... they weren't happy that I had corrupted myself if I wasn't the one responsible for my own downfall, I think they wanted me to vindicate their worldview, and when I told them I just wanted this ending back, they chased it off and let me reset.”  
  
“But...” Asriel said, trying comprehend what he had just been told.  
  
“Chara...” Asgore said as he looked at the three shadows, still frozen in their formation.  
  
“And then, at the end of this journey, the timeline we live in now? They were still back, but they had their own body, and the presence had enslaved them.” At that, the shadows fully manifested, Frisk, Chara, and that disturbing eye floating there, the presence that controlled Frisk, “They said the presence was going to reset so it could have me back, Chara... they told me they were going to give me one last chance, beat them without killing them, and they'd kill the presence.”  
  
The royal family looked like they were having a hard time registering that Chara would be capable of something both so awful and yet on exactly the other side, benevolent, “So then, we owe this to them.” Toriel said as she watched the battle begin, she gave a shocked gasp when she saw the very decidedly magical nature of how Chara went after Frisk.  
  
“Dang! What was that?!” Undyne said as she watched the fight continue, she looked like she was getting really into watching it, especially when Frisk tried to fight back, even though it was clear they weren't trying anything to actually hurt Chara.  
  
“dad's saying that...” Sans said, listening to Gaster speak as the fight continued, “he saw frisk losing this one, they weren't going to be able to do this on their own.” He said as a white monster SOUL appeared floating in the air, something Frisk never saw, “so he decided to throw in his aid one last time.”  
  
Suddenly, Frisk realized what was happening as their SOUL turned green to avoid an attack Chara launched, “Gaster was the reason...” They said silently.  
  
“Hey! That's my shield!” Undyne said, looking happy at Frisk re-using how she fought, “Wait, I kind of remember this, I just suddenly got the worst feeling you were in trouble before we all left the underground.”  
  
“Now that I think on it.” Toriel said, “I felt that too, just the feeling that Frisk needed our help.”  
  
Asgore nodded, “Like there was one last thing in the way they needed removed, and they required us to help.”  
  
Sans nodded, “yeah, i remember it too.” He looked as the shadow of Frisk blocked Chara's attacks, “dad's saying it was the last thing he ever thought he'd do, he sent his SOUL into here, turning it into a paradox, and he used it to link our subconsciousness together so that we could help frisk without knowing why, or even that we were.” At that, the shadows reached the point where Papyrus' support turned Frisk's SOUL blue to avoid an attack.  
  
“OH, OH! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN ME I BET! I'M SUCH A GREAT FRIEND THAT I CAN HELP MY FRIENDS EVEN WHEN I DON'T KNOW I'M HELPING MY FRIENDS.” Papyrus said as he watched Frisk use the gravity to avoid another line of attacks, followed by Sans saving them by blinking another incoming attack out of existence.  
  
“This is quite a battle.” Ral said as he watched the fight continue, “How long did this go on?”  
  
“A while.” Frisk said as they watched, “I tried to fight back because I knew Chara was the kind of person who would never stop on their own, but I couldn't bear to actually hurt them, so my attacks never really did damage.” They said, getting an approving nod from Toriel at their lack of willingness do harm, despite still trying to fight back.  
  
“dad says the longer it went on, the harder it got to remain stable, but he kept going until he thought it was over.” Everyone watched in silence as the battle continued, Frisk's SOUL turning yellow to shoot through, how Toriel and Asgore burned away Chara's main source of attack.  
  
Then?  
  
They all visibly cringed when Chara lunged for Frisk, intending for it to be a killing blow, only for it to be deflected, Frisk spoke, “Chara was trying to kill me, but they just wanted me to prove how determined I was to fight for the future I had made, they saw Asriel's pendant and then, I heard Asriel's voice.”  
  
“After having spent so long with you, when that feeling of you being in danger went through me, I just couldn't handle the thought of losing you, I still had some leftover magic, so I sent it all.” Asriel said as they watched Frisk destroy Chara's FIGHT option, leaving everyone speechless at a move that broke every law of the universe.  
  
“You helped me put a stop to it.” Frisk said, “After I made them unable to keep fighting, Chara smiled, told me they were going back to the afterlife... and they were taking the presence with us so it could never come back.” Gaster ended the shadows before it could actually show how Chara returned themselves to the afterlife, much to Frisk's relief. They watched as the eye rolled back and vanished.  
  
“But.” Gaster's voice called out, clear as day, “It was not all that was needed.” Suddenly, the world shifted again to a black void, there was only one distinct feature, an eye hanging in the air, looking weary. Frisk saw it and immediately paled, then hid behind their friends.  
  
Gaster's voice went to static again, “the presence is... a being that transcends space and time, killing it in one timeline just threw it into a purgatory to come back, a purgatory that i followed it to, and kept trapped.” Sans took a swallow at that, “this is the final obstacle that kept me from pulling myself back together, if i let it go, then this entity from another world would be able to return to linear time and control frisk to reset. but here, in this place beyond time, if it slain, it is gone for good.”  
  
One by one, the adults stepped up, Asgore spoke lowly, “So then, this pitiful thing is responsible for all of Frisk's pain? That other, miserable timeline?” He held out his arm and summoned up his trident.  
  
“And it did not learn its lesson from its death at Chara's hands, if it came loose, it would simply do it all over again for its own amusement?” Toriel said, looking to Sans, who nodded, she frowned as she summoned two fireballs beside her.  
  
“NO, NONONO, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO MAKE THEM A BAD PERSON AGAIN, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WON'T LET YOU!” Papyrus said in... genuine fury, taking out two bones and striking them together.  
  
“Get real! Like we're going to let that happen!” Undyne said, summoning a spear and twirling it.  
  
“This bright future is ours alone, demon. You aren't taking it from us again.” Ralochs said as he held a single fireball above his hand.  
  
“i guess we've reached that point again, huh? the kind where i can't afford to not care.” Sans said as two Gaster Blasters manifested besides him and began charging up.  
  
“I feel kind of bad for it, standing in front of everyone like this and not being able to fight back, but... somehow I feel like if we gave it a chance, it would just do this all again.” Asriel said as he watched the adults ready their magic, then turned his head.  
  
Frisk did want to speak out, but... after everything, even in their unrelenting pacifism, they couldn't find it to defend this thing that corrupted not just them, but Chara, and that killed all of their friends and family. They turned their head away so they didn't have to watch.  
  
The Presence finally came to, it tendrils of control shot out towards Frisk, but before they could get anywhere near it, the combined assault from all of the monsters struck it. It was hanging there looking pitiful, bleeding a little even, blood that looked more like static on a TV screen hitting the floor of the black void they were standing in. Before they could prepare another assault, a figure in a black tuxedo walked up and put its hands on Sans and Papyrus' shoulders, they looked around to see a tall figure with a broken smile and cracked skull.  
  
“dad.” Sans said in genuine shock.  
  
“DADDY?” Papyrus responded.  
  
Gaster smiled as he raised his hand, both eyes flashing in blue and orange as a demonic looking Gaster Blaster the size of a small house rose from the floor. Everyone stepped behind it and looked forward as Gaster threw his arms out and the cannon shot a massive beam, obliterating the eye to the point where not even dust was left. Gaster looked at his work, for just a second, before saying one sentence.  
  
“GEEEEEEEEET DUNKED ON!” He yelled as his figure destabilized and disappeared back to the main paradox.  
  
Sans blinked twice, “huh, so that's where i heard that said before.”  
  
“WOWIE! THAT WAS INCREDIBLE, OUR DAD IS REALLY POWERFUL!” Papyrus said, jumping up and down like a kid who just watched an action-packed cartoon.  
  
“Hey! Kill steal much?!” Undyne said, angrily, “Wait, where'd he go?” She said, looking as the voice began to speak again.  
  
“he's saying he managed to manifest himself here since he's mostly back together, telling me that it still wouldn't have been enough, so he came to lend a helping cannon.” Sans said with a wink, “he's telling me that did it though, he can't sense even the possibility of it existing now.”  
  
Frisk walked out from around the group, looking at the empty air, “Y-you mean...” They said, “It's finally over? I don't have to be afraid of it coming back anymore?” They seemed relieved, “To be honest, I could kind of always feel it still, when I slept I would have dreams of it trying to reach for me, to do it all again, but... it's really gone?” Asriel walked up to Frisk and put a hand on their shoulder, giving a re-assuring smile, Frisk, too, smiled.  
  
Everyone looked around, various sounds of relief being made as Sans walked up to Gaster's SOUL and grabbed it, “guess that's a good thing about being stuck in time, huh dad? could even separate your SOUL and it's fine, well, here you go, back to where you belong.” He let it go and it vanished back to Gaster.  
  
“Everyone.” Gaster's voice spoke out, the static was completely gone, “I am... whole again.” He responded, unsure of how to process the words he was saying, “Please, if it is not too much to ask, rest yourselves and then come back to the first paradox you found me in, the one in the CORE, I wish to speak with you all in person.” He asked.  
  
What happened next was quite a bit different as the paradox forcefully ejected everyone before vanishing entirely, “well, that's that.” Sans said with a hopeful smile, “the fact the paradox just collapsed on us tells me it's all over, i bet if you're looking at the mountain from outside then the second one just disappeared, probably aren't going to be any shadows anymore either.”  
  
Ralochs gave a grin, “Then that just leaves us getting Gaster and leaving, it's all over.”  
  
Toriel gave a sigh of relief, “Thank goodness, this trip has been more taxing than I wish to admit.” She shook her head as she looked towards everyone else.  
  
“Agreed, I can't wait to get back to the surface.” Asgore said with a weary smile.  
  
“Yeah! I've definitely got some things I need to tell Alphys!” Undyne said with a wide smile, “Man! What an adventure!” She started laughing, reflecting on things that had basically just happened.  
  
“I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! I'M FINALLY GOING TO HAVE A DAD! I NEED TO MAKE MORE SPAGHETTI WHEN WE GET BACK TO CELEBRATE, NYEH HEH HEH!” Papyrus chuckled, all but running circles in excitement.  
  
“Well, before we go, can we stay here one more night, please?” Asriel said, everyone turned their attention to him.  
  
“I suppose, what is one more night?” Toriel said, looking to Asgore and understanding very well Asriel's reasoning. Asgore just nodded in silence.  
  
“Fair enough, I got so angry at that eyeball that I burned through a lot of magic in one attack, and I'm starting to feel it.” Ral said, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck, “Besides, Undyne and Papyrus need to try to win back their money, I want to see how absurdly out of hand these two can make something as simple as racing snails.”  
  
“Heh! You're ON!” Undyne all but yelled as she charged back to home, Papyrus, Sans and Ralochs following just behind.  
  
“Asriel, you want to go talk to them, don't you?” Asgore said, looking to his children, Asriel just nodded.  
  
“I have some things I want to tell them before we leave again, things I didn't get to say the first time, is that alright with you guys?” Asriel said, smiling.  
  
“Take Frisk with you, they know the ruins so they can keep you from accidentally getting injured.” Toriel said softly as she motioned for Asgore to follow her back to Home.  
  
“Well then, Frisk, ready?” Asriel said, Frisk just nodded and started leading him to far end of the Ruins, to Chara's grave.

* * *

  
  
As they arrived in that room, they saw water from a storm that must have blown in from the surface, it was leaking in from the pitfall above and down below, watering the golden flowers, which still survived strongly even two years later. Frisk took a small inward breath, “There they are.” They said lowly as they hung back to let him say what he needed to.  
  
“Howdy, Chara...” Asriel said with a small smile as he sat down in front of the grave, it quickly inverted itself into a frown, “It's been... a while since we've talked, hasn't it? Mom and Dad, they know now, they came out here earlier and talked didn't they?” He put on a weak smile, “I thought they might even be a little bit angry about what we did, but they were just... sad.” He sniffled, “Golly... I'm crying again, I always felt embarrassed crying in front of you.” He laughed a bit, “They said they still love you, that's what they told me, I'm... guessing they told you the same thing, right?” He breathed in, “We tried to do an awful thing, I realize that now, Chara, but... I'm glad I didn't kill anyone, I'm glad we failed, is that bad? I realized now it wouldn't have gotten what we wanted, we wouldn't be happy with ourselves. I know that you're probably mad at me, and I'm sorry for that.”  
  
He shook his head, “Hey... I brought you something.” He said as he reached into his phone's box, producing a worn knife, and a heart-shaped locket, “Do you... remember these? You always told me this knife was important to you because it reminded you of the surface, I... maybe I shouldn't have brought it, that wasn't a very happy time for you, but I still think you should have it, sorry if it's kind of dull, I don't know how to sharpen knives.”  He planted the knife in the center of the flowers, then knelt down, ignoring the rain getting him soaked, “And... this locket, this one is actually mine, I'm... going to keep yours, if that's okay with you, so that I don't forget you, and mine is... so you don't forget me.” He was crying fully at this point as he continued, “I miss you, Chara.” He said sadly as he wrapped the locket around the handle of the knife so it was hanging just against the side of the blade.  
  
“I remember you yourself saying that... when you died, you probably weren't going to a very happy place.” Asriel said, “But... you weren't evil, you weren't bad, you just made wrong choices, that's not something to hate someone for, and it's not something that will make you end up... there.” He said, looking away, “Hey... Chara, I know it will be a while but... let's meet again one day, okay?” He said as he stood up and started walking away, he looked to Frisk, “I'm... I'm good, let's get going?” Frisk shook their head.  
  
“Can I actually have a second?” They responded, Asriel tilted his head, then nodded. Frisk walked up to look at the grave while Asriel waited outside.  
  
“Why?” Another voice spoke out as Chara manifested, merely a see-through, lingering spirit, “Why are they all being so nice to me after everything?” They didn't seem able to comprehend it, Frisk was having flashbacks to Flowey.  
  
“Because it doesn't matter to them, you're still family.” Frisk responded, causing Chara to look at them with a small frown.  
  
“And you also told them that I was the one who killed all of them in that other timeline, and they still forgave me.” They shook their head, “I got Asriel killed, I cut down Mom and Dad like they were nothing, I did it all out of malice, how can they still forgive me?!” They sounded more remorseful than angry, as if still struggling to process.  
  
“Because that's what family does... and because Asriel is right, you're not evil, you just made a bad decision, because you had a bad lot in life, and you couldn't think different, and, at the end of the day you were every bit as much a slave to that thing as I was.” Frisk said, trying to keep from crying, “Even I forgive you, Chara.”  
  
“I... I... I don't deserve it though.” Chara replied, they looked distraught, “Everything that I did, everyone I hurt, they all still love me that much?” Chara said, as if the world around them was falling apart, Frisk just nodded.  
  
“Everyone.” Chara whimpered, “I'm so sorry, everyone.” They said lowly as a sudden gust of wind came through, blowing the petals off some of the flowers, “When I came up with the plan, I meant it... I did just wish to help the monsters escape, I just... didn't want to live in this world that had been so awful to me. It may have been an excuse to try to take revenge but... but... it was always for them first, I... Asriel... I'm sorry.” They said, a few stray tears coming from their eyes.  
  
“Chara...” Frisk said, honestly shocked at the sudden resurgence of emotions.  
  
“Frisk... I'm... going away again, okay? I don't have a place in this world, so please, take care of them for me, alright?” Chara said as they stood, regaining their composure, “Hey... Frisk, do you see that?” Chara said, looking up.  
  
Frisk looked up at the hole to the surface, it was still dark from the rain pouring through, “It's still raining outside.” They responded, only to notice the shocked looked on Chara's face at their response.  
  
After a few seconds, the tears started up again and their smile expanded a little “I... I see, then this light I'm seeing is...” They closed their eyes, “Asriel...” They said as their ghostly form became more transparent and started fading, “Yeah... let's see each other again one day...” They said as they vanished entirely.  
  
Frisk knew the significance of what they just saw, they kept looking at the hole where it was raining with a wide smile on their face, “Apologizing, and receiving forgiveness... Chara, I hope that you're happy, maybe we can be friends too one day.” Frisk said as they stood up and walked outside.  
  
“Hey Frisk, you okay? You look like you've been crying.” Asriel said as he saw Frisk come out. Frisk just shook their head in response.  
  
“I'm good, ready to go back to the others? I'm ready for a long rest.” Frisk said.  
  
“Yeah, that sounds good, let's go.” Asriel responded as they started heading back.  
  
When they arrived back at Home, everyone was really into the snail racing, “Come on, thundersnail, win this for me!” Toriel all but yelled, even she had gotten into it and thrown some money down on her betting, Asriel and Frisk were speechless.  
  
Stories were shared, games were played, and there was a large amount of spaghetti, everyone was treating the incoming end of their journey like a celebration... except for Sans, who was sitting outside looking up a the roof of the cave.  
  
“don't give up hope dad, we're getting you back for real.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am completely unrepentant about the chapter name.
> 
> Welp, notes time
> 
> Part of the first bit was pretty sad, but I didn't make my emotions keel over like I did last chapter, hopefully that doesn't mean I didn't do it as much justice.
> 
> I didn't actually intend for the presence to show up in any capacity, just be mentioned, but I feel like it gives Frisk, and everyone really, much more decisive closure of the No Mercy run visions they've been seeing all through the journey.
> 
> Also, Gaster stealing the kill was completely spur of the moment for the sake of the joke, don't read into that one super much.
> 
> My own personal ideology about the kind of person Chara was in life should be pretty obvious, they weren't evil or malicious, just traumatized by their previous life and made bad decisions, they were only really an unambiguous force of evil as a result of the No Mercy run turning them into one, so in this universe where that went off the rails, it allowed them room to finally make peace with themselves and the others.
> 
> Originally I wondered if Frisk talking to Chara's spirit was going to be too corny, and would have ended it with a raindrop hitting the knife for symbolism, but it struck me as something that would happen in the game itself, so I went through with it, glad I did. Don't get me wrong, it's still kind of corny, but I think it's better that way.
> 
> This mostly wraps up the most emotional parts of the story, the rest to the end is going to be a bit more lighthearted.


	10. SAVE him

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the plot to just about wrap itself up.

Morning came and everyone got up one by one, “Man, I can't wait to get home and sleep in a real bed.” Undyne muttered as she popped her neck with a grunt.  
  
“Agreed, is everyone ready? It is a rather lengthy walk back to the CORE.” Toriel said as she stood, brushing herself off from any dust she'd accumulated sleeping on the floor, “Perhaps we should get some hot chocolate ready before departing to keep us warm through Snowdin?” She reached into her phone and produced a few packets.  
  
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.” Asgore said as he propped himself up and stretched out any exhaustion, “Has anyone seen Ral?” He said, looking around and noticing his brother wasn't anywhere in sight.  
  
“yeah, he left earlier and left a note, just tells us he'll catch up in snowdin.” Sans said as he walked into the room from somewhere else, “dad's waiting for us, let's not keep him waiting much longer, yeah?” There was a brighter smile than normal on his face.  
  
“I AGREE, I WANT TO BE ABLE TO TALK TO HIM WITHOUT SANS DOING IT.” Papyrus said as he stood up, putting his backpack against him, “BESIDES, I'LL FINALLY GET TO SHARE MY SPAGHETTI WITH HIM, NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!” He just kept laughing.  
  
“I know I haven't asked, but how much spaghetti is even in that backpack?” Asriel asked, looking at the bag that still looked like it would have exploded at any moment, “It doesn't even look like it's been touched even though some of it's been eaten every night.”  
  
Papyrus just blinked, “ERM... ENOUGH?” He said, even he didn't seem entirely certain how he managed to stuff so much food into it and he took  look inside.  
  
“Good an answer as any.” Frisk said as they stood.  
  
Everyone walked outside of the Ruins, spirits high for a multitude of reasons. Gaster would be able to come back, the presence was gone for good, everyone had confronted that other timeline and come out of it smiling, and Frisk had watched Chara redeem themselves, everything was wonderful.  
  
As they walked through the snowy forest up to the path into the mountains, there was a loud crash from off to the side in the distance,“What was that?” Asriel said in a concerned tone as he stood up, trying to find the source of the noise as a massive amount of disturbed snow billowed out from further in the woods.  
  
“I can hazard a guess.” Toriel said with a sigh.  
  
They sat there and looked over the forest, tracking further crashes and billows of snow until eventually Ralochs ran out of the treeline all but screaming, there were a few giant and razor-sharp snowflakes chasing after him, whirling like buzzsaws. As soon as he approached the group Toriel shook her head and threw some fire magic that melted the attack, Ral stopped, grabbing his knee and doubling over panting, “T-thank you, Lady Toriel.” He said, “Frigid witch.” He muttered, glaring back at the forest.  
  
“For someone who insists they do not like her, you always seem to try to go visit her even when it ends the same, if I did not know better, I would say you are trying to hold a conversation for a different reason.” Toriel said with a chuckle.  
  
“I-I have no idea what you're talking about, I was just telling her that the barrier was down if she wasn't aware.” He reached up and pulled his hood over his head, “It was nothing like that.” He was visibly blushing through his fur.  
  
“Oh man! Ral fell for a tsundere!” Undyne seemed like she was about to double over laughing, Ralochs just pulled his hood further down as his blush intensified.  
  
Asgore walked up to his brother and nudged him with a shoulder, “Don't worry, I remember a few times when I was dating Toriel I had to outrun her magic too.” He said with a chuckle as he looked at Toriel, who kind of narrowed her eyes at that, causing his chuckle to become much more nervous.  
  
“IF YOU NEED ADVICE YOU CAN ASK... FRISK! FRISK IS A DATING MASTER, THEY CAN TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW.” Papyrus said, looking to Frisk who blinked at that.  
  
“to be fair, I think frisk has already dated most of us.” Sans said, “or at least flirted.” He chuckled.  
  
Frisk raised an eyebrow at that as Ral looked over to him, “And here I thought you were just trying to get out of history class when you flirted with me the first time.” He said with a smile, Frisk's cheeks immediately went red at that.  
  
Asriel just sat there laughing, “Wow, I had no idea you were so flirty Frisk, that's pretty funny.” Frisk just blushed even more.  
  
“I mean, it worked a lot during my adventure...” They said, trying to justify themselves and failing, everyone else just kept laughing.  
  
The rest of the journey through Snowdin was pretty uneventful, Ralochs was all too happy to deflect his own embarrassment onto Frisk by telling them how Frisk complimented his horns in an effort to get out of an overdue history assignment when he was helping at the school, and then laid it on even further. This was followed by Toriel bringing up when Frisk also flirted with her, making the child go so red it looked like they were sunburned.  
  
As the group entered Waterfall, the conversation changed, “So, hey, do you guys think that thing was a left eye of whatever was looking in?” Ralochs said, everyone glanced back at him as they kept walking, “I mean, maybe if it looked in with the other, this wouldn't have all come to pass.” He shook his head.  
  
“Why the left one?” Frisk said, their thoughts idly going back to that other path, they had always noticed something about left eyes but never bothered to ask, they had really been too haunted to even try.  
  
“Well.” Toriel said, “Eyes are significant to monsters because of how we channel our powers, a majority of our power comes from our left eyes.” She explained, “It's considered a sign of great personal trust to close your left eye around someone, and closing your right means you consider that person a threat.”  
  
Frisk nodded, remembering how Sans and Undyne, and to a lesser extent Mettaton, all had their left eyes displayed prominently on that other path, and how in this timeline and the other good ones, Sans always winked with the left one.  
  
“And covering your left eye so it's always hidden, debilitating wounds justifying it aside, means you're strong enough you don't need all your magic to fight, though usually it just means you're absurdly overconfident.” Ralochs said, looking to Undyne, she growled a bit in response, making him fast walk to the front of the group.  
  
“That... actually makes a lot of sense.” Frisk added, “The more you learn.”  
  
“To be honest I thought you already knew.” Asgore said, “We would have explained it to you sooner if we knew you didn't know about it.” He looked between everyone else, getting a mix of nods and shrugs.  
  
“I COULDN'T SEE US LOOKING AT YOU LIKE THAT ANYWAY, FRISK, SO  I DON'T THINK IT MATTERS.” Papyrus said as he walked along the pathway.  
  
“agreed.” Sans said, not feeling much else in the way of conversation.  
  
“So, what are your guys' plans for the future?” Ral said to keep the conversation going.  
  
“Oh! Well, me and Tori were talking about taking the kids on a vacation, actually, after having dealt with all this I think we all need a break from everything.” Asgore said as he reached back to scratched his neck, “This has been a bit more stressful than we thought, so we figured we owed it to ourselves and each other.”  
  
“Vacation? Where to?” Frisk asked, looking between everyone.  
  
“We are not sure yet, we will have to discuss it once we can settle in back home.” Toriel replied as they crossed the bridge seeds.  
  
“I'm sure it'll be great no matter where it is.” Asriel cut in as he walked around the others, “What about the rest of you?” He said, looking to the other four.  
  
“Well!” Undyne said, then glanced to the side with a bashful smile on her face, “There's something I want to ask Alphys when we get back to the surface, depending on what she says, who knows!” She laughed as they came up to that dock, “Oh, right, forgot about this, hold on everyone!” She said as she drew her sword and jumped into the water to use it as a makeshift transport.  
  
As everyone stepped on the sword and got ferried across, Papyrus decided to add in his two cents, “I'M NOT SURE, I JUST WANT TO KEEP LIVING HAPPILY WITH MY FAMILY IN MY HOME, ESPECIALLY NOW THAT THERE WILL BE THREE OF US IN ONE HOUSE.” He said, starting it bounce and making the sword bob a little.  
  
“Careful there Papyrus, we don't need to go over.” Ral said as Papyrus blinked twice and came to a stop.  
  
“yeah, that sounds good to me, just sleeping the day away, doin' nothing, yeah, sounds like a pretty good plan.” Sans added as he stepped off as they arrived at the other side, “nothing says family like slacking.” He chuckled.  
  
“As for me.” Ral said, “Mmm, yeah, hanging out in the city for a while sounds nice, but I'll have to be off again before too long.” He said with a sigh that Asgore picked up on with a raised eyebrow, “I've actually been looking into something pertaining to a darker part of the recent events.” He sounded a bit sad at that, “I think I know where to find the parents of the other six.” He said, everyone's mood except Papyrus' turned down a bit.  
  
“WHAT, WHY DID EVERYONE GET SO SAD ALL OF A SUDDEN?” He asked, confused.  
  
“You're planning to tell them what happened?” Toriel said with a small frown, displeased at the turn of the conversation.  
  
“To an extent, some of them were runaways, some of them were abandoned, but even still their parents deserve closure for what we did. I'm probably not going to tell them the whole truth of it though, there are some things that shouldn't be said.” Ralochs muttered with a sigh, dropping his head down.  
  
“Hey, Ral.” Asgore said, “When you're ready to do that, I want to go with you.” He added, Ral lifted his head at that, “It was my fault that it even happened, if anyone deserves to apologize and tell them, it is me, not you.”  
  
Ralochs frowned for a second, then nodded, “Thank you, Asgore.”  
  
They arrived back at the small gap that led over the water, one by one they made the jump, including Ral this time, he took a quick sigh of relief before Undyne patted him on the back, “Hah! I knew you could do it!” She said as she all but slammed him, causing him to go stumbling forward with a scream right into the water, “Whoops!” She laughed.  
  
After he was fished out, they proceeded through the rest of the caves to Hotland, it wasn't long now as they ascended the path to the CORE. As they went, Frisk slowed down to catch up to Sans, “Well?” They asked him, causing the skeleton to look at Frisk with a shrug.  
  
“i'm gonna try my hardest, frisk, but i don't think i can do anything he won't want us to.” Sans said as he thought about the situation, “nah, even if he doesn't, we need to make him, don't we?” He said with clear resolve in his eyes, Frisk just smiled and nodded to him as they entered the hotel.  
  
They walked through the cold metallic shell to the final paradox, upon entering, they saw Gaster standing tall and whole, “Everyone.” He said with a small, thankful smile, “Thank you, all of you.”  
  
“WHAT ELSE DID YOU EXPECT! I'M AMAZING!” Papyrus said, charging forward to wrap his dad in a hug, Gaster responded with a bittersweet expression, “I'VE ALWAYS WONDERED ABOUT THIS, I'M SO HAPPY TO FINALLY MEET YOU!” Papyrus almost looked like he was crying.  
  
“I'm really happy for him.” Asriel said, “I can't believe we actually managed to do it, it wasn't easy, but we did.” He said smiling as Gaster and Papyrus sat there and talked.  
  
“I remember Gaster almost fully now.” Asgore said, “He was always the kind of person to wear his heart on his sleeve, even when he started getting consumed by his experiments, I think he'll do great.”  
  
“hey dad, I...” Sans said with a sigh, “i don't want to ruin this moment but... you're going to go away again once we leave here, aren't you?” He looked the skeleton in the eyes and Gaster couldn't meet his gaze.  
  
“Wait, what? You mean we did all this for nothing?” Undyne said, she sounded like she was starting to get angry until she noticed the look on Gaster's face.  
  
“Oh dear, what?” Toriel said with clear worry on her face, “What do you mean, Sans?”  
  
Sans shook his head, “dad was in the middle of dying from the machine's explosion blowing him into the CORE, once he leaves his paradox, time will resume for him, he'll finish dying, won't you, dad?” Sans said, his face dropping into a frown.  
  
Papyrus of course looked mortified, “WH-WHAT? YOU MEAN YOU'RE JUST GOING TO GO AWAY AGAIN? N-NO, I WON'T LET YOU!” Papyrus said as he hugged his father tightly, Gaster just looked forward.  
  
“I'm sorry, so, so sorry.” Gaster said, “I was hoping that you wouldn't know that, so that there would not be as much of a shock.” He looked guilty, “But I don't want to risk you all just to try to save me.”  
  
“so then there is a way.” Sans said, Gaster blinked twice, then looked forward, “i don't care how risky it is, i'm helping you get out of here.”  
  
“No.” Gaster said, “I will not let you put yourselves at such risk after everything else.” He said firmly as he went to walk outside, to his own death.  
  
Sans opened his eye with a brilliant flash of blue, “W H O S A I D I W A S L E T T I N G Y O U C H O O S E ?” He yelled as Gaster was yanked backwards by gravity magic, “sorry, but, i'm not leaving and i'm not letting you leave until you at least let us try to help you.”  
  
“I'm with Sans, let us help.” Ralochs said, “We've solved all these other paradoxes, perhaps we can find some way to save you that still let events play out the same way.”  
  
One by one, everyone nodded, “We're here for you.” Frisk said, “And we're all determined to bring you back with us.”  
  
Gaster sat there for a while, eyes closed, “You all... very well then.” He said defeated, though the smile on his face looked very happy, “I will take you back to that moment, and if you can save me, then...” He shook his head, “Good luck.”  
  
Gaster vanished as the world around them shifted and distorted, bringing them back to Gaster's lab on the day of the accident. Sans took in a deep breath as Gaster walked forward and turned on the machine, all of his assistants surrounding him. The machine clicked on and Gaster stood in it, waiting for his results when the machine began to smoke, it began to distort the world and pulled the assistants into a rift, Gaster was the only one still standing.  
  
“this is it.” Sans said as he stared forward, he waited for the machine to activate, then threw his arm forward into the paradox, grabbing Gaster's arm, “i got you, dad.” Sans said as he held onto his father's arm, the draw of the machine was trying its hardest to suck Gaster up... then Sans' feet left the ground.  
  
“NO! I'M NOT LOSING YOU TOO!” Papyrus yelled as he ran forward and grabbed Sans, keeping him rooted with his blue magic, “JUST HOLD ON, OKAY?!”  
  
“What are we all standing around waiting for?! Give him a hand you guys!” Undyne yelled as she grabbed Papyrus, helping keep  him firmly rooted in place.  
  
Asgore, then Ralochs, then Toriel all piled in, holding onto Gaster and keeping him from getting pulled in, “I... I see! The machine is sparking because it's moving too fast for the gears.” Gaster said, laughing, “As long as it keeps going it will grow hotter and hotter until it explodes.”  
  
Asriel looked around, “Oh no, it's not working, we need to think of something, anything! Frisk, what do we do?!” He panicked as he looked around, only to notice Frisk staring forward stone-faced and determined.  
  
“I... that's it!” Frisk said as they opened their eyes in realization, they ran into the group and grabbed Papyrus' arm, “Sorry about this, Papyrus.” They apologized as they reached back and opened his backpack.  
  
“MY SPAGHETTI!” Papyrus yelled as the spaghetti was pulled from his backpack by the vortex in a single, massive clump, into the paradox. Each noodle splashed against the machine... and then, some of the massive amount of food hit the cogs turning on the side of the machine and got clumped up, it begin to whir and churn as it shut down.  
  
“no freakin' way.” Sans said in disbelief, “what.” He added.  
  
Gaster looked back, blinking twice, “What?” He shook his head, “Wait! That's it! Sans, let me go now!” He said with a wide smile on his face. Sans was hesitant, but after a second he agreed and watched Gaster be sucked into the vortex. The machine shut down after Gaster vanished, but there was no explosion, just a gradual slowdown to a half.  
  
“Did... that actually just work?” Asgore said, staring at the spaghetti covering the side of the machine, “Frisk, how did you...?” Frisk just shrugged.  
  
“Lucky guess.” They said, “Really I just thought of the only thing we could sacrifice that wasn't one of us and decided it was worth a shot.” They added, getting a whimper of sorrow from Papyrus.  
  
“BUT I SPENT SO LONG ON THAT BATCH.” He sat down in a huff, Asriel walked over and comforted him.  
  
“But, did it work?” Toriel said, looking around the black void they were in.  
  
“It did.” Gaster said as he re-appeared, reaching up to his face, the cracks were gone, “I was still lost in time, still had to live out the paradox and all the events, but... I'm still alive in linear time, I can leave.” He sounded like he was about to start crying, “You actually did it.” Everyone smiled.  
  
“you have frisk and pap to thank for that one.” Sans said with a wink, forcing out a few tears.  
  
“MY SPAGHETTI SAVED OUR DAD!” Papyrus seemed elated and was crying in relief, “I KNEW IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO MAKE SO MUCH OF IT.”  
  
“I can't believe that actually worked!” Undyne said in disbelief, “But geez, how freaking crazy was that?!” She laughed, “Once again Frisk saves the day!”  
  
Frisk reached up to rub the back of their neck, “I mean, really it was a fluke but...” They shook their head, only for Ral to interrupt.  
  
“Don't sell yourself short, I wouldn't have thought to do that.” The scholar said, look around as the paradox seemed to be shrinking, “Looks like it's time to go.” Everyone nodded and headed outside.  
  
Gaster stared at the empty space of the CORE, “I'm actually free, I can't believe it.” He laughed happily as he stared at the real world, “To be able to feel the ground under my feet, this cold air and know it's real... I... what can I even say?”  
  
“it gets better, ready to head out everyone?” Sans said.  
  
“Yeah, let's get out of this dark cave once and for all.” Ralochs said as he started walking towards the access path to New Home.  
  
“Doctor! Doctor!” Unfamiliar voices cried out of the darkness as the sounds of various claws tapping metal came rushing towards the group, Gaster's eyes widened.  
  
“C-could it be?!” Gaster seemed shocked as unfamiliar looking monsters came up to him, “My assistants... you're alright.” He fell to his knees smiling.  
  
“It would seem that we did not just save Gaster.” Toriel said with a smile, “Everything has worked out perfectly.”  
  
Everyone walked out of the underground, the sky orange from the setting sun as they all looked forward over the cliff, Asgore smiled, “It does not matter how many times I see this sight, it never changes.”  
  
“To think... I would be able to see the surface with my own two eyes.” Gaster said as he stood next to his children, “Amazing.” That was all he could think to say.  
  
“IF YOU THINK THAT'S AMAZING! YOU SHOULD WAIT UNTIL WE GET HOME AND I CAN MAKE YOU SOME SPAGHETTI.” Papyrus said happily as they kept looking forward.  
  
“I look forward to it, Papyrus.” Gaster said as tears flowed from his eyesockets.  
  
“Just one more day?” Ralochs said, everyone looked to him.  
  
“Well, it is a very long walk back to Newest Home from here, and I'm sure we are all tired by now, what do the rest of you think?” Asgore said, looking at the others.  
  
“gives us and my dad time to talk.” Sans said with a bright smile on his face, “i got quite the earful for him, even though i don't have ears.”  
  
“I AGREE, I WANT TO SIT AROUND AND TALK FOR A BIT, WE CAN GO HOME TOMORROW!” Papyrus said, all but spinning in circles in excitement.  
  
“I mean, I could handle staying here one more night, not sure about you guys.” Undyne said confidently with a huge toothy grin.  
  
“One more night sounds good, I managed to sneak some more food out of the old restaurant so we can all have food.” Frisk said as they pulled their phone up.  
  
“No complaints here, I think it'll be good to make sure we're all rested up before we go home.” Asriel said as he found a fallen log and sat down.  
  
“Well then, I believe that settles it, one more night, then tomorrow we head home.” Toriel stated as she sat down next to her children.  
  
The rest of the night was spent by a bonfire celebrating the end of their journey, it was a party in just about every meaning of the word as they talked about their futures, about Gaster and the life he'd expect to have, even his assistants got in on the fun. Despite how tired everyone was, the party lasted well and beyond into the night before everyone fell asleep, ready for tomorrow to come and for them to head home to signal the end of their adventure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to really say about this part, after the emotions of the last two parts this chapter felt kind of... comfy, but I don't think that's a bad thing, have to end it somehow.
> 
> Expect Cinna to show up in future works in some capacity, I didn't even have her speak or even physically appear, but I like her concept.
> 
> More headcanon, specifically about what left eyes mean to monsters.
> 
> Hey look, a not so subtle sequel hook.
> 
> Next up is the epilogue... son a- it's ending on chapter 11 again.


	11. Restful Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know what you're thinking, I said Monday I know, but I started writing a draft and wound up just going through with it.

The next day came as the sun began to rise and everyone woke up from their impromptu party, “Ah, I was starting to forget what it was like to wake up to the morning sun on your face.” Asgore said as he looked at the sun rising over the other side of the mountain, “I suppose this means it's time to get home, hm?” He questioned as he looked back.  
  
“Indeed, is everyone ready?” Toriel said as she looked around at the group.  
  
“Ready and waiting!” Undyne said, “Let's get moving!” She took the initiative and went first, disappearing down the trail back to the city.  
  
“WAIT FOR US UNDYNE!” Papyrus yelled as he looked over, “ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE OKAY TO WALK ALL THE WAY BACK DAD? I CAN CARRY YOU.” He offered, looking to the skeleton standing near him, Gaster just waved his hand in response.  
  
“No, I am okay, and I wish to walk anyway, I wish to use my legs now that I have them back.” He added as he started down the path, his assistants following behind chattering about various things.  
  
“man, what a crazy trip, well, see you guys back home.” Sans said as he went in the opposite direction, probably to take another shortcut to the bottom, “oh, and by the way... nah, nevermind.” He said with a small wave as he headed off.  
  
“Curious.” Asgore said as he looked back to the others, “Are you ready as well?” He added, looking to the rest of his family.  
  
Frisk nodded, “I really want to sleep in a bed right now, this roughing it hasn't been for me.” They stated as they started heading down with the others.  
  
“It's still a good walk though, it'll probably be noon before we're back home.” Asriel said to Frisk as he started following them down as well.  
  
“I'm with Frisk, it'll be nice to sleep in my own bed for the first time in months.” Ral said as he started walking.  
  
“Actually, that raises a question.” Asgore said, “You were traveling all around the world to discuss our relations with world leaders and other politicians, how did you know to come back exactly the night the paradox started up?” He raised a questioning eyebrow, Ralochs just shrugged.  
  
“Couldn't tell you, I just had the sudden sensation that something was going to go incredibly wrong and that I needed to come back, though, given everything else at this point? I wouldn't surprised if Gaster may have had some part to play in that, I'll ask him later.” He said with a soft smile.  
  
Back in Newest Home, Alphys walked out of her house with a metal box with an antennae in her hand, “O-okay! Finally finished this, now I should be able to call them without worrying about the signal!” She flicked the switch on the device and pulled out her phone, then stared at it, “...Erm.” She fidgeted some before hitting Undyne's number and putting the phone up to her head, in the not far off distance, she could hear a phone ringing, “W-wait, what?”  
  
She looked back to see everyone walking down the road with a smile on their faces, “O-oh th-thank goodness, everyone's back and... w-wait! I-is that Doctor Gaster?!” She said in shock at the skeleton walking with the group, “O-oh my goodness.”  
  
“Hahah! There she is!” Undyne's voice could be heard from a distance as she spotted Alphys... and then started picking up speed and kicking up dust, “Alphys!” She yelled, “Will you marry me?!” She added, causing all her companions to stop in their tracks and stare, Alphys just dropped the device on the ground as Undyne kept closing the distance.  
  
“Wh-wh-what?! O-oh my oh dear oh my!” Alphys was panicking and her entire body was turning red from her blushing as she watched Undyne run towards her so fast there was a typhoon of disturbed dust behind her. After a few seconds, she took in a deep breath, “Y-yes! T-the answer is yes! Undyne!” She called back, then immediately shrank back from her own comment, “I-I mean...” She stuttered.  
  
Before she could even think to backtrack, Undyne took a mighty leap forward as Alphys screamed, “That's all I needed to hear! C'mere you!” She yelled as she tackled her girlfriend so hard they both flew back into their house, the door slamming shut behind them.  
  
Ralochs stood there with a raised eyebrow, “Well then.” He chuckled.  
  
“I'm happy for them, they've always deserved each other.” Frisk said, “Wonder when the wedding will be?” They looked to Asriel, who shrugged at that.  
  
“Well, what now? I guess it's time for us to go our separate ways for the time?” Ralochs questioned, “I could really use a long nap in a real bed, I'll talk to you guys later.” He gave a soft wave as he turned to head back to his own house.  
  
“I AGREE, I THINK WE SHOULD GO AND I CAN  SHOW YOU OUR HOUSE!” Papyrus said looking to Gaster, “AND THEN AFTER THE TOUR, I CAN FINALLY MAKE YOU SOME SPAGHETTI.”  He grabbed Gaster by the arm and started leading him off.  
  
“Oh, of course, that sounds wonderful Papyrus.” Gaster said with a smile, “I have so much to talk about and so many things to do, but I think reconnecting with my family should come first.” He said as he waved goodbye to the dwindling group.  
  
“Well.” Toriel said, “That just leaves us, is everyone ready to return home?” She said with a smile as she looked at her family, Frisk and Asriel just nodded as they started heading back.  
  
Their journey had ended, they were all safely home and ready to continue forward.

* * *

  
  
“WELL, HERE IT IS, THE PIECE OF RESISTANCE... WAIT, DID I SAY THAT RIGHT?”  Papyrus said as he slid out a plate filled with spaghetti, “TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK, AND BE HONEST!” He added, looking to Gaster with a hopeful gaze.  
  
“I can only imagine how this must taste, Papyrus.” Gaster said as he stuck the spaghetti into his mouth, there was a very noticeable pause between him taking a bite and continuing, “Oh my, it's... rather something.” He said, then looked towards his son with a smile, “This is wonderful, Papyrus.” He added.  
  
“NYEH HEH HEH! I KNEW IT, YOU REALLY ARE MY DADDY!” He was crying as he hugged Gaster, “WELCOME HOME! WE'LL HAVE TO HAVE A ROOM MADE FOR YOU, I'LL GO ASK UNDYNE IF SHE CAN KNOCK DOWN A WALL FOR IT TO BE BUILT.”  
  
“That sounds wonderful Papyrus, while you do that, I need to go have a word with Sans.” Gaster said as he took another bite and cringed, then stood up to walk outside, Papyrus followed just behind and broke off to go do his own thing. Gaster quietly walked around the house and slipped through a hidden door into a secret room of their house, “Sans, so you did keep it.” He said, looking at the machine.  
  
“yeah, all this time i figured i could probably use it to save you, even if not, it helped me out a ton... a skele-ton.” Sans responded with a wink, causing Gaster to burst into laughter, “so, what are your plans for this thing, repair it and use it to keep looking forward? or are you going to try to get it to work for actual travel again?”  
  
“Neither.” Gaster said, causing Sans to straighten, “I am going to repair this machine and alter it so that it can travel back in time, and then loses its ability to transport, simply view.” He said as he walked up and ran a hand down it, Sans' eyelights had vanished, he knew immediately what his father was planning.  
  
“so... that's where you got the thing from.” Sans said, “i figured it was something screwy just because, well, time machine, but who'd have figured that you sent it back as a gift to yourself?” He reached back and scratched the back of his head, “so, wait, who built the thing in the first place?”  
  
“You know the answer to that, Sans, the one who built it was the one who found all the individual pieces to put back together.” Sans blinked twice at that, “You built the machine from scratch from a memory of it, and then I send it back, it scatters me, and you rebuilt it so I can send it back again, a stable time loop.”  
  
Sans just stared forward for a second before chuckling, “man, time travel's freakin' weird.” He added with a wink.

* * *

  
  
“So... that's pretty much what happened.” Undyne said as she finished telling the story, or at least the short version it, “You'll have to ask the others the specifics, this time travel stuff is confusing as heck.” She shook her head.  
  
Alphys nodded, “Incredible, I-I knew Doctor Gaster... sort of.” She raised a claw to scratch at her face, “I was... sort of an understudy? He didn't really... treat me super well.” She frowned, then looked up to catch Undyne's face heating up in anger, “I-I mean, that's n-not to say he was mean to me or anything, I just always felt like his least favorite, he was really a nice guy, but it felt like he wouldn't tell me stuff. I had no idea about that machine, even.” She fidgeted, “A-actually... wait, d-do you think it might have been because he didn't want me going away because he saw how important I was to stuff?” Her voice cracked as the light bulb went off in her head.  
  
“Beats me.” Undyne responded, “From everything else he told us? He'd been working on a lot of stuff behind the scenes.” Before she could continue speaking, there was a sudden knock on the door, “Ugh, I know this knock.” She said as she opened the door on Papyrus.  
  
“HELLO UNDYNE! I WAS JUST WONDERING IF YOU'D HELP ME DESTROY A WALL OF MY HOUSE SO WE COULD START BUILDING MY DAD'S ROOM.” He said as he looked inside, “HELLO ALPHYS.” Alphys just gave a weak wave in response.  
  
“You bet I will!” Undyne said, then turned back to Alphys, “Err, well, actually, can you give me an hour?” She said as she closed the door on his face without waiting for his answer. She glanced outside the window to see he was still standing there, literally intending to wait an hour for her to be ready. She gave a slightly frustrated sigh before shutting the curtains and walking over to sit by Alphys.  
  
“S-so, what y-you said earlier, about uh... m-m-marriage?”  She fidgeted, “Did you really mean that?” Undyne smiled and walked over to the counters. She reached back into a hidden counter Alphys had no idea was there and pulled out a small black box, she got on her knees and pried it open to show a ring.  
  
“In the underground I... saw some stuff that made me realize how much I appreciate you being here, and how much I care about you.” She coughed, “I mean, I've actually been planning it for a while, but what I saw down there? It made me realize that I really did want to ask you, so what'd you say, Alphys, will you marry me?”  
  
Alphys launched herself into a hug around Undyne's neck, “T-the answer is still yes! I love you Undyne!” She cried as Undyne hugged her in response, they stayed there like that for what may have been hours.  
  
According to Papyrus, who was keeping track, it was exactly two hours and twelve minutes.

* * *

  
  
“That might have been the best nap I've ever had.” Frisk said as they walked downstairs to see Asriel and Asgore talking, “Hey, what are you guys talking about?” They questioned as they pulled up a chair.  
  
“Oh, well, Asriel actually had a question I was just... err, trying to explain to him?” Asgore said, as if the question was something not even he knew how to answer, “I mean, I can certainly try though.” Frisk nodded, looking to Asriel.  
  
“Well, something I noticed was that you seemed really comfortable with the ideas of other timelines, when Ral mentioned it you were one of the first to respond, and when Frisk explained it when I was rescued, you didn't even question it.” Asriel said, looking to his father for an answer, Asgore nodded.  
  
“Well, I had always had a... sensation of other timelines, the ripples from them, I'm not quite sure why, though I believe it's because I knew of Gaster's experiments with time travel, when he vanished I lost all memory of him, but some things probably still lingered. I had no context for it, but I wasn't adverse to acknowledging time travel as a possibility.”  He reached up to scratch his beard, “For all I know, Frisk could have told me about the first time the barrier broke and what I meant to them, and I probably wouldn't have even tried to fight them.” Frisk and Asriel shared a very uncomfortable glance with each other at that statement that Asgore didn't seem to notice.  
  
“Well, our plans have been made.” Toriel said as she walked into the other room, “I have reserved us a room at a rather quant beach side resort, after all of this chaos, I believe we are all in need of a vacation.” She said with a weary sigh, “I need to start planning before it grows to be too late, but, for now, I believe I am going to take a break.” She said as she sat down in her armchair and pulled out a book to read.  
  
“Sounds excellent, dear, warm sun and nice weather will be lovely after all of this.” Asgore said as he looked to his children with a smile.  
  
“Wow, this will be our first family vacation together, won't it?” Asriel said with a bright smile, “We're gonna have so much fun!” He sounded so excited.  
  
“Yeah, I'm looking forward to it.” Frisk too gave a huge smile.

* * *

  
  
“That so? I hear that resort's really nice.” Ralochs said as he talked to Asgore over the phone, “Hm? No, no, I think I'll pass, there's no need for me to be a fifth wheel, my vacation will be sitting at home imitating Sans for the next few months. Besides, I need to start planning the next trip... yeah, that one.” He said, his tone growing grim, “Hey, mind if I put you on speaker? I'm about to start dinner.” He said as he sat the phone down on the counter and reached to grab a pan.  
  
“How many have you found so far? I can't imagine it was easy to track them all down.”  Asgore said over the speaker phone with a slight sigh.  
  
Ral shook his head as he reached into his fridge, “It wasn't, to be honest I'm not even sure if this is something we should do.” He grimaced, “The parents deserve closure, but at the same time, you know how it goes, nobody would go to Ebott for a happy reason, the ones that weren't abandoned wholesale were probably runaways for a reason.” He shook his head again as he pulled out a raw steak, “The more I consider it, the more I wonder if the parents won't thank us for what we did.” There was more than a little disgust in the tone of his voice.  
  
“Don't think like that, Ral.” Asgore responded, “Parents are still parents, no matter how awful, and they were still their children, even the ones that were... left there.” He sighed again, “This is something that needs to be done no matter what, where have you plotted out so far?”  
  
Ralochs sat the steak in the pan and lit a fire just above his palm, “Two in America, one in England, the rest are mostly local.” He clenched his fist as he slid the fire under the pan to let his magic cook it, “It seems absurd, but it seems like some of them were happy to go out of their way to the one place where unexplained disappearances were assured, instead of just possible.”  
  
“And, when are we planning on leaving?” Asgore said, ignoring the last statement and probably pointedly so, Ralochs just looked towards the phone with a small frown.  
  
“It'll probably be a few months, Thanksgiving is two weeks away, then it's right into Christmas, it'll probably be the new year before we head out, it's too busy to travel, not to mention it would be callous beyond words to inform the parents of something so horrible during the holidays.” He said as he turned the pan a bit, watching his food cook.  
  
“Very true... just let me know when you plan on leaving, I know you want to shoulder this burden by yourself, but it was my fault to start with, it was my plan, if anything we should face this together.” Asgore said, “Well, Tori's got dinner ready, I should be hanging up. Oh! But before I do, did you ask Gaster about how you knew to come back?”  
  
“Mmm, I think I worked it out.” Ral said as he looked over to the living room, “I'll tell you in person tomorrow, good night, brother.” He said as he hung up.  
  
“After all, not everything can be erased so easily.” He said as he walked over to a framed photo of him, Asgore and Gaster sitting side by side smiling, on the mirror in the photo were words carved into the glass, one of them was the date when Frisk broke the barrier. The other? The date when the paradox began, “The gaps in my memory have filled in, from the day you first turned on that machine you could see how things would go, even to today, incredible how things worked out exactly as you planned, isn't it, Gaster?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The End.
> 
> If there's one regret I have in retrospect, it's that I didn't know what Underswap was while writing it, it would have been hilarious for the main AU characters to see their Underswap counterparts.
> 
> So, chapter notes
> 
> Not much this time, but I'm with Sans on the time travel stuff, it's enough to make your head hurt.
> 
> The bit with Asgore was actually my attempt to explain a plot hole I accidentally let sit in Longest Road (and one in the game as well, they never explain why Asgore believes you if you tell him he's killed you X times before), hopefully that made sense.
> 
> Now, I left a pretty clear sequel hook, but given that the holidays are here and things are going to get busy, odds are good I won't write it until the new year, HOWEVER, I'm not done writing in general, I've been looking back and Onlooker and going "I could do better." So I'm probably going to go back and pretty it up, maybe add a bit more fluff between paragraphs and dialogue, and fix some weird spacing and odd formats that kind of irk me now that I have a better idea of how I want to write stuff.
> 
> Thank you all for reading, see you in the next one.


End file.
